Target Plans Brooklyn Park Office Campus Expansion; Duke Realty Expands Industrial Portfolio

By Gabriel Circiog, Associate Editor

The Target Corp. is planning to expand its Brooklyn Park office campus by adding a seventh building on the site, which would add another 245,000 square feet of office space, Finance & Commerce reports. A proposed economic development agreement with the city will be analyzed by the Brooklyn Park City Council on Dec. 12. Jason Aarsvold, economic and redevelopment director of Brooklyn Park, said Target, apart from the four office buildings it has with 561,000 square feet of space at the 150-acre campus located northeast of U.S. 169 and Highway 610, also owns another 180 acres west of the campus available for a possible expansion.

Target negotiated a property tax abatement with the city in 2006, providing the company the possibility to tap into $20 million from the city over 30 years, but the abatements have been reduced because the company didn’t meet the job creation goal. The retailer had to add 1,500 new jobs since 2006 to benefit in full from the agreement.

The renegotiated agreement with the city is based on a different economic development incentive allowed by the state legislature through the job creation legislation and would provide between $1.7 million and $2 million for the new office building. The subsidy will be linked with construction jobs created during the project.

In other news, Duke Realty Corp. recently closed on the acquisition of three industrial buildings in Roseville and Shakopee totaling 356,143 square feet. The acquisition takes Duke’s Minneapolis industrial portfolio to 3.7 million square feet and its nationwide industrial portfolio to more than 108 million square feet.

The properties acquired include:

• The I-35 Business Center, at 2215 Highway 36 West in Roseville, totaling 121,699 square feet and leased to Milestone and Reliable Sprinkler;
• The FujiFilm building, at 2420 Long Lake Road in Roseville, totaling 76,800 square feet;
• The Minnesota Valley West building, at 3880 Fourth Ave. East in Shakopee, totaling 157,644 square feet and leased to COKeM.

All the buildings are fully leased, confirming the company strategy to invest in industrial assets in strong distribution markets. Duke owns and operates around 143 million rentable square feet of industrial and office assets in 18 major U.S. cities.

Photo Courtesy of Target.com