Oakdale Village is sold to REIT

Posted on June 16, 2013 by

Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal reports that Artis REIT, a Winnepeg, Manitoba-based real estate investment trust, closed this week on the purchase of Oakdale Village, a 164,000-square-foot shopping center that has changed hands twice in the past six years.

Artis bought the property for $34 million, according to a certificate of real estate value filed with Washington County. The seller was LaSalle Investment Management, based in Chicago, which had purchased the center in 2010 for $24.6 million.

Artis is one of the largest landlords in the Twin Cities, owning about six million square feet of industrial, office and retail space.

Posted in Oakdale

North Face, Dry Goods headed for Edina

Posted on June 16, 2013 by

Alisson Kaplan of Mpls + St. Paul Magazine reports on lots of new activity in Edina.

The North Face will open a store at Galleria this fall. This will mark the third Twin Cities location for the popular outdoor apparel brand, which also has stores in Uptown and on Grand Avenue in St. Paul. North Face will occupy 5,961-square feet—nearly the size of the Uptown store—next to Pittsburgh Blue at the Galleria’s east end.

Dry Goods, a Von Maur spin-off focusing on affordable trend apparel for young women will open its first Twin Cities store this year at Southdale Center. More store announcements are soon to come from Southdale. Meanwhile, Rojo Mexican Grill is now open at the Edina mall, and Smashburger opens next week.

Posted in Edina

Minnetonka getting new retail center

Posted on June 16, 2013 by

Jeff Carriveau, left, and Chris Moe, both of H.J. Development Inc.

According to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, H.J. Development Inc. soon will begin construction on a 14,000-square-foot retail strip center in front of the Cub Foods at the intersections of Highway 7 and County Road 101 in Minnetonka.

The development, called Shoppes on 101, already is fully leased. The tenants will include Noodles & Co., SportClips, CherryBerry Frozen Yogurt, and Sprint.

H.J. Development plans to begin construction “within the next few weeks,” according to a press release. St. Paul-based Pope Architects designed the project and Delano-based Bauer Design Build will build it.

Posted in Minnetonka

National chain to open wine & beer supercenters in Twin Cities

Posted on June 16, 2013 by

Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reports that Total Wine & More, which bills itself as the nation’s largest independent retailer of fine wine, is scouting the Twin Cities for real estate with plans to open “several” stores here, according to spokesman Ed Cooper. The Potomac, Md.-based company is aiming to open its first location by the end of the year.

“The Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul area is clearly populated with folks who love and have an appreciation for fine wine, so we see that as a real opportunity,” Cooper said. “And, in addition to that, there’s really no other retailer out there who is similar to us. We’re really a category unto our own.”

These aren’t your typical strip-mall liquor stores. Total Wine & More’s wine supercenters span 20,000 to 30,000 square feet, often filling spaces vacated by retailers such as Circuit City and Borders.

The stores carry more than 8,000 wines from around the world, 3,000 distilled spirits and 2,500 beers. They also have climate-controlled wine cellars with rarer selections, as well as walk-in cigar humidors, interactive food-and-wine pairing kiosks, and wine-education centers that are used to host tastings, classes and events. Read more >>

Posted in Minneapolis, St. Paul

T.J. Maxx coming to St. Paul Midway

Posted on June 10, 2013 by

Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reports that discount retailer T. J. Maxx has signed a lease at Midway Marketplace in St. Paul, where it will join tenants such as Herberger’s, Cub Foods, Walmart and L.A. Fitness.

T.J. Maxx will fill a 26,040-square-foot space formerly occupied by PetSmart. The 487,196-square-foot shopping center, located at 1450 W. University Ave., now is fully leased.

The store is scheduled to open by October 1. The chain currently has 13 stores in Minnesota, the nearest of which is roughly nine miles away at Sun Ray Shopping Center in St. Paul.

Posted in St. Paul

Marshalls to leave Southdale, move down the street

Posted on June 10, 2013 by

According to the Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal, Marshalls plans to leave Southdale Center, relocating to a new space nearby.

Marshalls is under construction on a 26,000-square-foot store at Southdale 494 Shopping Center in Bloomington, where it will fill a space formerly occupied by CompUSA, according to a source with knowledge of the deal who asked not to be identified to protect client relationships.

When that store opens in September, the retailer will close its roughly 40,000-square-foot store in Southdale’s basement.

Posted in Bloomington

Suh to open restaurant at former T.G.I. Friday’s location in Eden Prairie

Posted on June 10, 2013 by

Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal reports that local restaurateur Gene Suh has signed a lease for the former T.G.I. Friday’s space at Eden Prairie Center, where he plans to open a restaurant called Prairie Tap House in September.

The restaurant will be similar to Suh’s Lyndale Tap House in Minneapolis and Valley Tap House in Apple Valley, which feature Baltimore-style pit barbecue and a wide variety of tap beers.

Prairie Tap House will occupy a roughly 6,500-square-foot space near Wildfire and Biaggi’s Ristorante Italiano. T.G.I Friday’s closed its restaurant there in late 2010. (Another local restaurant, Masu Sushi & Robata, was close to a deal there last year, but ultimately decided to walk away from the deal.)

Posted in Eden Prairie