IDS Center Recovering From Loss of Namesake Tenant

MINNEAPOLIS-The IDS Center is about halfway toward fulfilling its goal of filling a 600,000-sf hole that is being created by the departure of its namesake tenant, American Express Financial Advisors (formerly, IDS) and Target Corp.

The first new tenant, Merchant & Gould, a large Minneapolis law firm, moved into 94,000-sf of space at the IDS Center this month, says Corey Whitbeck, a leasing agent for RREEF, which manages the property. Meanwhile, Decision Systems, which develops software for banks, finance companies and others, recently signed a lease for 113,000-sf at the 1 million-sf office building.

Several smaller deals are nearing completion as well, but Whitbeck says he couldn’t disclose the identities of the propective tenants until the deals were signed. Law firm Briggs & Morgan recently renewed its lease at the building, and plans to move to 70,000-sf of new space in the next year or so.

The leasing success comes despite several new major office projects under construction in downtown Minneapolis.

“It’s certainly a competitive market, but so far we’ve seen no significant declines in rental rates,and no panic as was predicted by some of the brokers representing tenants,” Whitbeck says.

What’s more, his firm hasn’t had to offer up naming rights to find big tenants. At one point, the building’s owners had thought of offering naming rights as an incentive for a major new tenant, but now they plan to stick with the name IDS Center. “We have no intentions of changing the name,” Whitbeck says.

American Express Financial Advisors is in the process of moving its headquarters to new 1 million-sf, $125-million American Express Financial Center on Second Avenue between 7th and 8th Streets, developed by Minneapolis-based Opus Corp. By the end of the year, the financial services company will have vacated 400,000-sf, with another 120,000-sf under lease at the IDS Center until August 2002.

Target Corp. will leave some 70,000-sf of space at IDS late next year when it moves to its new 1.2 million-sf headquarters tower being developed by Minneapolis-based Ryan Cos. on the northeast corner of 11th Street and Nicollet Mall in Downtown Minneapolis.