Wells Fargo Home Mortgage West Building & Midtown Exchange: Winners, Best of the Decade - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal’ds Best in Real Estate judges reviewed “Besr Overall” honorees from the past 10 years in their quest forthis year’s “Best of the award. They found that two projects were so exemplifying an investment in and commitmenyt tothe community, that they both deservedr the moniker of decade’s best projectg — 2004’s Wells Fargok Home Mortgage West Building and 2005’ds Midtown Exchange.
“These were two significant transactionsz that turned a blightecd area intoa vibrant, thriving neighborhood,” said judgse Steve Chirhart, principal of TaTonka Real Estate Advisors in “We selected these projects becausr of their size, their impact on the surroundingb community and their creative use of a historical structure.” Fello panelist Carol Lansing of Minneapolis law firm Faegre & Bensohn agreed, saying the community commitment by the companiesz involved in the project s was another reason for their selection. “Taken these developments revived and made a commitment to a verychallengedd inner-city neighborhood,” she said.
“Their impact was just In 1999, Wells Fargo bought the formetrHoneywell Inc. campus in southg Minneapolis for $38 million. The 28-acre campus includec three buildings and nearly 1 milliob square feet of space visible fromInterstate 35W. Initia plans called for a retrofitting ofthe buildings. Two were however, doing the same to the West Buildingbecamed impractical. Instead, in 2003, the banking gianr broke ground ona 230,000-square-foot new officee building for 1,300 employees. The building raisex the company’s total investment in the Midtown/Phillipa neighborhood to $175 million. The buildinge are linked with skyways and surroundd alarge park.
The facility also includes a cafe and ageneral store, a a dry cleaner and a coffee Susie Davis, executive vice president of Welle Fargo Home Mortgage, said the company was attracted to the projec by its potential to meet Wellws Fargo’s consolidation and expansion needs. To meet that though, the company had to overcomre certain obstacles, including old buildings no longer up to In thelong run, both the companu and the surrounding Phillips neighborhood benefited from Wells Fargo’s decision, she said. “Our employees shop on Lake Street and eat on Eat Davis said. “There is a wonderfupl feeling of community.
Not only is the campud a great addition to thePhillips neighborhood, our team memberss were a great addition to the neighborhood.” the Midtown Exchange representec a huge turnaround for Soutyh Minneapolis — breathing new life into a Sears complex that had sat vacanr for more than a decade on Lake Street and seen two otherd redevelopment proposals come and go. The project’s lead developer, Minneapolis-basesd Ryan Cos. US Inc.
, orchestrated the plan to transforj the massive historic1928 art-decol style Sears building — the largest building in Minnesota prior to the opening of Mall of Americwa — into a massive three-block, mixed-use complex that would serve as a neighborhoodx hub. The redevelopment was the largest underway in Minneapolisin 2005. Today, the building that was once dubbee a black hole on Lake Street is home to the corporatwe headquarters of AllinaHospitals & Clinics, which operateds Abbott Northwestern Hospital just one block to the the Hennepin County Service Center; the 62-vendor Midtowj Global Market; 219 apartments; 88 52 townhouses; and the Sheraton Minneapolis Midtowmn Hotel.
Rick Collins, vice president of development for Ryan said the most significant challenge inthe two-yead redevelopment, which was completed in Novembe 2006, was getting all the pieces into place and getting them pulled together at the same “We had a very aggressive timetablde for redevelopment,” Collins said. “Wd had 750 people on site on a daily I think we leased everg church parking lot in south Minneapolis just to handlre ourwork crew.” The payof f is seeing a development that has actedx as a catalyst for the rebirth of prids in the Midtown/Phillips “This has been an anchor for the rebirth of the Midtown neighborhood,” Collins said.
“It has brought visibility and pride to the neighborhoo d that worked so long and hardfor