Industrial Focus: Mendota Heights Business Center

 

Capri Capital Advisors Challenged to Gut the Maze

 

Mendota Heights Business Center, a four-building complex owned by Capri Capital Advisors and managed by United Properties, faced challenges when Sun Country Airlines filed for bankruptcy and moved its headquarters out of the Phase I office/showroom building.

 

The 72,000-sq.-ft. property, located near Interstate 494 and Pilot Knob Road in Mendota Heights, was extremely built out. “Sun Country grew and grew and it was a maze,” says Tony DelDotto, United Properties’ senior industrial leasing associate. “There was no sense to it. There were walls and walls and offices of all sizes.”

 

This was a couple of years ago during the down market. “We had to convince Capri to spend money on gutting the space,” DelDotto says. “Sometimes it’s a tough thing to ask an owner to spend money, especially in a down market. But we told them that the probability of finding someone to take that space in that condition was very small.”

 

Most of the space was gutted, DelDotto explains, which opened up the building so prospects could visualize their own layout. The building has windows on both sides, so gutting it allowed for more natural light and freshened up the space, he says. In the past 18 months, United Properties signed four long-term leases in the building, totaling nearly 54,000 sq. ft. The largest deal inked was with American Cancer Society for 22,000 sq. ft.

 

“The leasing success was partially due to the rebounding market, but repositioning the building was fundamental in attracting tenants and securing leases,” DelDotto says. “The problem for smaller local landlords without deep pockets is they are the least excited to spend money on gutting space. As a result, they often end up sitting on the space longer than institutional landlords with more financial resources.”

 

 

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