Revived West End Building Scores Three New Tenants

Only one floor remains unfilled at the oldest building at West End Office Park.

Three new tenants have signed on for a total of 120,000 square feet at the West End Center in St. Louis Park, according to a news release from the Twin Cities office of Cushman & Wakefield, which represented the landlord during the transactions.

West End Center is a seven-story, 200,000-square foot building at 5100 Gamble Dr., which sits just south and west of the intersection between Highway 100 and Interstate 394. It was built in 1968.

The new leases cap off a two-and-a-half year effort to revamp and reposition the building, said Cushman & Wakefield broker Peter Fitzgerald.

“Our strategy was to vacate five out of the seven floors, though we kept [longtime tenant] Health Partners in first two. Then we targeted larger, stronger-credit tenants,” said Fitzgerald, who added that the third floor, though still unleased, is generating strong interest. “We’re looking for tenants that would match the caliber of three we just signed.”

The new tenants include:

nVent, which launched as an independent, publicly-traded company in late April. Prior to that, the company was the electrical division of Pentair. The company is taking about 60,000 square feet, spread over the sixth and seventh floors of the building. The company is relocating from Pentair’s main Twin Cities office at The Colonnade in Golden Valley, which sits about one mile north of West End Center on the other side of I-394.

CoBank, a national cooperative bank that primarily services agribusinesses. The company is moving its Minneapolis office to the fourth floor of West End Center, and will occupy a total of 30,000 square feet there. It comes from the 600 building at Metropoint Business Park, which is also in St. Louis Park.

Magnet 360, a consulting company that advises clients on the use of Salesforce, a cloud-based customer relationship management platform. Magnet 360’s move will be a short one, it is relocating from The Depot at West End, a single-story flex building which is about 0.7 miles from the West End Center building. The company is taking over a 30,000-square-foot space on the fifth floor there.

All three are scheduled to move in later this year. None of the new tenants responded to a request for comment.

The third floor offers 30,000 square feet of available space and can accommodate a maximum of about 150 employees, Fitzgerald said.

The team will soon turn its attentions to the remaining five buildings in the park, which are slated for renovations as well. Fitzgerald said West End Center’s new, modern design gives it an edge over nearby competitors.

The renovation at 5100 Gamble added more glass curtain to the building’s façade and enlarged existing windows. The interior of the building was given an urban look with exposed ceilings and polished concrete floors, as well as an updated amenities package that now includes a fitness center and bike storage. Fitzgerald notes that this, combined with the building’s closer proximity to apartments, retail and restaurants at The Shops at West End, has provided the building with a distinct advantage.

With the three new tenants on board, the occupancy of the West End Office Park is now at 90 percent, a substantial increase from three years ago when the 560,000-square-foot property was last sold.

West End Office Park is owned by an investor group that includes The Excelsior Group, which is based out of St. Louis Park and its affiliate investment fund, Opportunity Partners Fund IV, in conjunction with New York-based Goldman Sachs’ Asset Management Private Real Estate division. The group acquired the park in March 2015 for $40 million, according to CoStar data. At the time, West End Office Park was only 69 percent leased.

^{See CoStar COMPS #3261330.}