The first phase of Prime Therapeutics’ new headquarters in Eagan will be complete in October, with the second to wrap up in September 2019. Credit: HGA courtesy United Properties.
A Canadian real estate investment trust plans to buy Prime Therapeutics’ new corporate headquarters in Eagan, Minnesota, for almost $100 million.
Winnipeg-based Artis REIT has a purchase agreement for the campus at 2900 Ames Crossing Rd., a two-part project that will soon be home to Prime Therapeutics, said Philip Martens, the REIT’s executive vice president for the U.S. market. Prime Therapeutics is a pharmacy benefit management company owned by Chicago-based health insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Artis REIT will buy the campus from owner / developer United Properties of Minneapolis incrementally as each phase is completed, according to Bill Katter, co-president and chief investment officer of United Properties. The total purchase price will be $98.5 million, Artis said. The deal was first mentioned in Artis REIT’s most recent quarterly report.
United Properties broke ground on the project in June 2017. The first phase consists of a 225,000-square-foot office building that will be completed this October, said Katter. The second phase is a 160,000-square-foot building that will be joined to the first by a connecting hub. That part of the project will probably wrap up by September 2019, he said.
Prime Therapeutics is leasing the new campus, which will house its information technology and operations teams. Katter said the company signed a 16-year lease for the first building and a 15-year lease for the second. According to public statements from the company in 2017, the new campus will allow Prime Therapeutics to consolidate four of its existing offices in the Twin Cities, including two in Eagan, and two others in Mendota Heights and Edina, Minnesota. Prime Therapeutics has an office in Bloomington that will remain in use.
The company confirmed the property on Ames Crossing Road will be its new headquarters, but did not give further details. Prime Therapeutics has about 3,000 employees, with about 2,000 based in Minnesota as of the groundbreaking in 2017.
Katter said United Properties marketed the campus for a short time through CBRE’s Minneapolis office, under the leadership of brokers Tom Holtz and Sonja Dusil. In spite of the brevity of the sale period, the property got ample interest, he said.
The attraction may be tied to Prime Therapeutics itself. The company manages the prescription benefits of 27 million patients who are insured through employers and large government programs, including Medicare and Medicaid.
In recent years, Prime Therapeutics has scored two lucrative deals that have given the company added reach. In August 2016, it said it had a 10-year agreement with retail pharmacy powerhouse Walgreens. The alliance created a new, jointly owned company, Orlando, Florida-based AllianceRx Walgreens Prime, a specialty pharmacy offering home delivery service. It also gave Prime Therapeutics access to more than 8,100 Walgreens pharmacies, including 800 condition-specialized pharmacies and 250 local specialty pharmacies.
At the time, Prime Therapeutics said the partnership could make it one of the top three pharmacy benefit management companies in the country.
In March 2017, Prime Therapeutics announced another coup: A three-year contract to manage pharmacy benefits for the Federal Employee Program, which includes 5.4 million federal employees, retirees and their families.
In Eagan, there is still plenty of room to grow. The Prime Therapeutics property covers about 30 acres, excluding an area taken up by a lake at the site.
