Duke-Weeks Bets Norman Pointe, 1600 Tower Spec Buildings Defy Slowdown

ST. LOUIS PARK, MN-Duke-Weeks Realty recently opened two speculative office buildings in the suburban Twin Cities. While officials there remain positive that they can fill the buildings by mid-year, they acknowledge the economic slowdown has made leasing a little tougher than expected.

In November, Duke-Weeks opened Norman Pointe, a 212,000-sf , seven-story office buildings on the southwest quadrant of Highway 100 and Interstate 494 in Bloomington, MN. The lead tenant in that building is Rooster.com, a business-to-business company organizedby a consortium of agribusinesses such as Cargill and Cenex Harvest States. Rooster.com is leasing about 30,000 sf. But so far, the building is just 40 percent leased, says Jim Gray, senior vice president and general manager in charge of Duke-Weeks’ Minneapolis office. “We have a lot of good prospects,” Gray said. “But with the economy slowing, people seem to be slowing their decision-making down.”