Minnesota's tallest office tower, the 57 story IDS Center has sold for $235 million to a consortium of commercial property investors.
The consortium includes Florida-based Beacon Investment Properties, LLC, Tel Aviv-based Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. and Menora Mivtahim Insurance Ltd. The group purchased the property from Inland American Real Estate Trust, Inc, which purchased the IDS Center in 2006 for around $277 million, according to Bloomberg.
The IDS Center is a 1.4 million square feet steel and glass building with around 25000 square feet of indoor greens and fountains. Located at 80 S. 8th Street, it occupies an entire square block near Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. Designed by starchitect, Philip Johnson, the building was constructed in 1972 and is considered a post-modern architectural landmark.
The tower has a two level retail plaza, the Crystal Court, which is 100 percent leased to affluent tenants like Gap, Banana Republic, Mission American Kitchen and Bar, Hubert W. White and People's Organic Café. The office portion of the tower is 93 percent leased to tenants like Kraft Foods Group, Wells Fargo Advisors, Nickelodeon-MTV, Vennum, Merchant & Gould and Bank of America.
Inland American had first listed the property sometime in 2012 stating that it was re-positioning its commercial property value and would be focusing on student housing, lodging investments and retail properties. The IDS center had then attracted some affluent buyers. Artis Real Estate Investment Trust had offered around $260 million for the building then. However, the deal was never completed and the property was hauled off the market, reports Star Tribune.
"The IDS Center performed well in our portfolio. The decision to sell this fine asset is consistent with the execution of our long term strategy," Jeff Manno, vice president of transactions, at Inland American Business Manager and Advisor, Inc. said in a statement.
Beacon Investment Properties is a 10-year-old commercial property investment firm which is expanding aggressively. In the past six months, the company has acquired around 3.4 million square feet of high class commercial real estate in the Southeastern, Southwestern and Midwestern property markets, reports Star Tribune.
"Our company is delighted and proud to own the premier office complex in one of America's most progressive and dynamic markets, the Twin Cities. It is a stable asset with long-term tenants and a history of strong financial performance. We are honored to assume the stewardship of IDS Center from Inland American, which took very good care of this commercial real estate icon during its seven-year ownership," Ariel Bentata, chief investment officer and founding partner at Beacon, said to the National Real Estate Investor Press.