Finance and Commerce
Abdo plans his next ‘adventure’ downtown By Burl Gilyard, F&C Real Estate Writer April 19, 2007
Developer Larry Abdo has closed on the purchase of 1016 Marquette Ave., a 0.10-acre site where he plans to put up a boutique office building.
Abdo hopes to begin construction by the middle of the year on the 48,000-square-foot project in downtown Minneapolis.
While real estate watchers have been trying to predict the location of the next downtown office tower, Abdo’s project is a different animal.
Abdo said he can offer building naming rights to a smaller user.
He also wants to apply for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification.
“We’re going to demolish the little building that’s there. We’ve been meeting with our architects and engineers. Our plan is that we’re going to put in a very high-level green building or LEED building, the first one in downtown Minneapolis,” said Abdo, president of Minneapolis-based Anxon Inc.
“It really becomes an icon property. This is going to be an adventure,” he added.
Minneapolis-based Tanek Inc. is designing the project.
GreenMark, a four-month-old Minneapolis firm founded by former Hennepin County Commissioner Mark Andrew, will be handling marketing and media relations for Abdo’s project. The firm specializes in marketing “environmentally sustainable practices and programs.”
Abdo, closing the deal last month, bought the downtown site from Dick Zehring of St. Paul-based MSP Commercial. Zehring, who bought the site in November 2004, had been pitching a high-end, eight-unit condo project before that market cooled.
Per property records, Abdo’s group paid $1.2 million for the site, which sits across the street from the Hilton Minneapolis hotel. Zehring’s group paid $450,000 for the property.
The site, which contains a vacant, single-story building, is next to the studios of WCCO-TV and on the same block as The Nicollet condo project. In March, Minnetonka-based Opus Northwest joined The Nicollet project team after Houston-based Hines Interests bowed out. New plans for the site remain unclear, although mixed-use has been mentioned.
Abdo is never at a loss for projects. He’s also converting a building at 814 Hennepin Ave. into apartments and is seeking a first-floor restaurant tenant. He wants to buy the adjacent Hennepin Stages Theater at 824 Hennepin Ave. from the city of Minneapolis. Abdo plans to keep that building as a theater.
At the end of 2006, United Properties reported that downtown Minneapolis office vacancy remained high at 17.3 percent, or 20.3 percent counting available sublease space.
But Abdo believes there is room in the market for his project.
“We would love to have construction started by mid-summer, but it might take us a year before we get settled on who the tenant is going to be,” Abdo said.