A California investment company and a local private equity group overcame “tremendous bidding activity” to cinch the $18.6 million deal for the Baker Technology Plaza in Minnetonka.
Los Angeles-based Tryperion Partners and Capital Partners of Minneapolis are the new owners of the five-building, 254,274-square-foot flex complex. The 32-year-old property, with addresses from 5909 to 6121 Baker Road, is in the northwest quadrant of the interchange of Interstate 494 and Highway 62.
The joint venture is named Baker Tech Partners, said Jason Simek, a principal of Capital Partners, who also is a senior associate in the Minneapolis office of Colliers International.
The seller is the Utah Retirement Investment Fund, which owned the site for about 20 years, said Judd Welliver, senior vice president at the Minneapolis office of Los Angeles-based CBRE. Welliver was one of the brokers representing the fund.
CBRE brought the property to market in early summer, Welliver said.
“We saw a tremendous amount of bidding activity, as much as we have ever seen for this asset class,” he said Tuesday. “We interviewed a variety of different buyers, but ultimately this was the right fit.”
The purchase price works out to $73 per square foot. The property, which is split between two parcels, had a total assessed value of $17.3 million for taxes payable in 2018, according to Hennepin County records.
The deal closed on Friday, Simek said. No certificates of real estate value had been filed as of Tuesday afternoon.
Welliver said the pension fund was ready to sell and hoped to find an energetic new buyer that would improve the complex. From a leasing perspective, the buildings had been underperforming, he said.
The complex is about 72 percent occupied, and its largest tenants are Minnetonka-based Advanced Imaging Solutions, a branch of London-based Element Materials Technology, and a location of Atlanta-based Anchor Wall Systems.
“[The complex] needed a new owner who was ready to roll their sleeves up and reposition it,” Welliver said.
The new owners plan to shorten the name to Baker Tech and will give the complex a major upgrade. The partners hope to add a taproom, updated common areas, grills, a bike sharing program and a regular slate of food trucks.
Simek said the bones of the buildings, centralized location and the Minnetonka address were appealing.
“We’ve always admired these assets. They’re classic brick, with great glass, in a premier market — the southwest suburbs,” Simek said Tuesday.
Simek hopes to make the complex attractive to creative and tech office users. The capital improvement budget is still in the works, Simek said, but demolition on parts of the complex will begin immediately. The partners hope to complete all the upgrades by mid-2018.
Tryperion and Capital Partners have also collaborated on the $6 million purchase of a Brooklyn Center warehouse in 2014, and a sale-leaseback with Wilcox Paper in Champlin that closed this October. Tryperion also purchased a seven-property office/warehouse portfolio in an $18 million sale that closed in January 2016.
Source: Finance & Commerce
