MINNEAPOLIS—Delta Airlines has just sold its 190-acre, two-building campus in suburban Eagan to Excelsior Properties, a Minneapolis-based commercial real estate investment and management firm, for $10.4 million. Built in the 1980s, it was once the world headquarters for Northwest Airlines, but operations were moved to Atlanta when the two airlines merged and since 2013 the complex has been largely unoccupied.
“There is still a fair amount of still to be developed land, and it's a gorgeous piece of ground,” Chris Hickok, an executive vice president with JLL, tells GlobeSt.com. Along with Chris Rohrer, also an executive vice president with JLL, he represented Delta in the sale of the property. Much of the open land in the area remains agricultural, but the Delta campus has rolling hills, wooded areas and ponding areas. “Every corporate user that looked at the site was wowed by the setting.”
“When this was an integral part of Northwest Airlines' operational plans, this development was a vital piece of property,” he adds. “The acquisition by Excelsior, a developer/owner committed to Minneapolis, ensures the future, long-term vitality of this property and its return to the market.” Excelsior has not formally announced plans for the buildings and land.
The complex consists of two buildings, Building A and Building N. The first is a four-story office building and totals 273,540 square feet. The floor plate is about 68,385 square feet and “that is really tough to find,” Hickok adds. He expects that a user will occupy this building.
Building N will be “a little more challenging.” The 278,620 square-foot structure once attracted pilots from all over the world who came here to train on its simulators. There are 20 simulator bays in two wings and about 100,000 square feet of office space. The simulator space could still prove very attractive because these simulators are expensive to develop, and another user may find it cost-effective to occupy. Or the building's wings could be taken off, transforming it into strictly an office building.
“We had a pretty substantial list of possible users,” Hickok adds. “That helped Excelsior get comfortable with the site.”
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
