VOLUME 32, NUMBER 2
©2016 Law Bulletin Publishing Co.
February 2016
CBRE’s Freytag and Karkula: Plenty of office activity in the Minneapolis suburbs today What amenities do companies want when they are looking for office space in one of the suburbs?
By Dan Rafter, Editor Urban centers are getting all the press today. But the suburban commercial real estate market is soaring, too, today in the Twin Cities area. Minnesota Real Estate Journal recently spoke with Jim Freytag and Brent Karkula, office brokers with the Minneapolis office of CBRE, about the strength of the suburban office market here. Both brokers agreed: The suburban office market isn’t an afterthought today. It’s a first choice for many companies. Minnesota Real Estate Journal: We all hear a lot about what office users want when it comes to urban office properties. But what about in the suburbs?
Jim Freytag: We work in the suburbs and some in down Minneapolis and the urban core. We have a pretty good perspective on a whole lot of things. The tenants today are looking for amenities in the suburbs today. It’s often about walkability. People want to be near a lot of service amenities. They want their employees to have access to food options over their lunch hours. They want their employees to have access to workout amenities. They want their office buildings to be located near apartments or near hotels for when employees have Suburbs to page 16
Multifamily development soaring in Detroit, Minneapolis and Chicago – but affordability remains a challenge By Dan Rafter, Editor
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ultifamily development remains hot across the Midwest. For proof of this, look to the key Midwest cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. These two cities saw significant new apartment projects in 2015, projects that added hundreds of new apartment units to these metropolitan regions.
And these cities will see even more multifamily development in 2016. RENTCafe, a national apartment search Web site and a part of research company Yardi Matrix, provided some interesting numbers to Midwest Real Estate News. According to RENTCafe, Minneapolis saw the addition of 11 new rental developments with more than 50 units each in 2015. These additions brought 1,905 new apartment units to the Minneapolis market, with
the WaHu student-housing development adding the greatest number, 329 units. In St. Paul, RentCAFE reported, two new apartment projects of more than 50 units each opened, bringing 362 new multifamily units to the city. Vintage on Selby led the way here with 210 new units. These cities are hardly outliers. Developers are adding multifamily units to Kansas City, Indianapolis, Multifamily to page 18