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A new commercial real estate investment company, Metro Ventures, paid approximately $4.2 million for a trio of small industrial properties in Minneapolis, MN. The related transactions closed on Jan. 5, according to certificates of real estate value released by the state of Minnesota.
All three properties are located about a half-mile from an onramp accessing Interstate 94 and 10 minutes from downtown Minneapolis. Each is surrounded by urban neighborhoods, within a block of parkland, and two of the assets are tenanted by Hennepin County.
Metro Ventures is an Eagan, MN-based company founded in late 2016 by Gene Kuppenbender, who was owner and vice president of Bay West until this past December, according to his LinkedIn page. St. Paul-based Bay West is a company that specializes in environmental remediation and investigation. Kuppenbender could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
The selling parties were three different business entities, all of which are tied to Clifford Fraser. When contacted Wednesday, Fraser declined to comment on the sales.
The properties are:
- 2600 25th St. E. — Metro Ventures paid just under $1.91 million, or about $76 per square foot, for this two-story, 25,127-square-foot building constructed in 1970. The 0.8-acre site is zoned for light industrial. The building is currently tenanted by Hennepin County, which operates a probation office there.
- 2500 25th St. E. — Metro Ventures paid $1.47 million, or about $49 per square foot, for this 1.1-acre lot improved with a single-story, 30,000-square-foot building constructed in 1977. The site is zoned for medium industrial use, and is fully-leased to Auto Driveway Co. and Ad Acquisition.
- 4340 Lyndale Ave. N.: Metro Ventures paid $825,000 for two tax parcels. The first includes a 9,000-square-foot building dating back to 1947 that Hennepin County utilizes for another probation office, despite the 0.3-acre site’s zoning for medium industrial use. The other is a vacant L-shaped lot immediately to the north, which covers about 0.4 acres, located across the street from the North Mississippi Regional Park and two miles north of the Upper Harbor Terminal project, a redevelopment effort spearheaded by Minneapolis-based United Properties.
Hennepin County’s lease will be in place at the Lyndale Ave. location until August 2019, said Michael Noonan, senior administrative manager with the County’s real estate division. The lease at 2600 25th St. runs until April 2021.
“We were aware of the sale, but not troubled by it because all the discussions between the buyer and seller included the assumption of the leases,” Noonan said on Thursday. “That is what is happening, so as far as we are concerned it’s status quo.”
If the buyer does eventually choose to repurpose the properties, their centralized locations would make them a good fit for last-mile distribution centers, particularly those dealing in food and perishables, said Colin Ryan, senior vice president with the Minnetonka office of Toronto-based Colliers International.
“There is huge demand for [industrial properties] in the urban core. It’s very difficult to find and it’s usually vintage product,” Ryan said. “[They’re] not big, new 32-foot clear warehouses, but they are in the middle of a densely populated area.”
