Minnesota Real Estate Journal, 2007
Class A Snelling Avenue facility marketed to medical tenants
Construction is under way on a new, 36,000 square foot, high-end office building in Roseville near the Rosedale shopping center, one that’s being targeted to medical, dental and other tenants looking for Class A amenities and a close-in East Metro location.
The North Central Professional Building is being developed by Eagan-based MSP Commercial, the real estate firm headed by veteran downtown St. Paul developer and civic leader Richard Zehring. In recent years, Zehring’s firm has concentrated on building a series of East Metro suburban medical office properties, including recent efforts in Oakdale (Oakcrest Village), Cottage Grove (Summerhill Professional Building) and Maplewood (Kennard Professional Building).
Those buildings all have HealthEast Care System as an anchor tenant, reflecting a long-term relationship between MSP Commercial and the Maplewood-based healthcare provider. HealthEast, however, will not anchor the new Roseville building, says Steve Miller, MSP’s manager of leasing and special projects.
This one will be different in that regard, Miller says. We’re looking for other possible medical tenants. We do have one agreement in place with a non-medical tenant: Keller Williams Realty has signed a lease for around 10,000 square feet.
Miller said the shell of the new building is scheduled for an Oct. 1 opening. The land on which it’s situated was one of the few developable pieces of vacant land left in the highly built-up Roseville. It’s on the northeast corner of the intersection between Snelling Avenue’s eastern frontage road and County Road C. The lot has been split off from property that has long been part of the adjacent Roseville Corporate Center, a 232,000 square foot multi-tenant office facility owned by Jerry Trooien of JLT Group Inc. MSP purchased a corner of JLT’s property, which had been partly vacant land and partly occupied by a surface parking lot serving the existing building.
The project was delayed because of a complicated process involving a trail easement and the platting of the new lot. But the difficulties have now been ironed out and construction crews have entered the site, Miller says.
Like MSP’s other suburban office efforts, the North Central Professional Center is aiming for tenants looking for a bit of prestige. It will feature upscale materials and woodwork in the offices and entryways, granite countertops and intensive landscaping. Unlike some of MSP’s other suburban properties, however, the exterior won’t have such softening features as a mansard roof. Miller says the firm is instead going for a more traditional corporate look for the new effort, which he said is better suited to a closer-in market like Roseville rather than more exurban areas.