17-acre Site in Hopkins Sold
Minneapolis Star Tribune
January 7, 2008
By: Susan Feyder
The new owners of a warehouse site at a prime intersection are weighing several long-term possibilities for redeveloping the property.
Minneapolis-based Stewart Lawrence Group recently acquired a 17.1-acre site near a key intersection in Hopkins with a long-term goal of redeveloping the property.
Stewart Lawrence, a real estate investment and development firm formed in 2006 by industry veterans Stew Stender and Larry Pobuda, paid $6.5 million for the site at 325 N. Blake Road.
The only building on the parcel now is a 275,000-square-foot cold storage warehouse occupied by Atlas Cold Storage, Pobuda said. Atlas had owned the property but sold it to Stewart Lawrence and will vacate the building by the end of March, he said.
Pobuda said his firm’s short-term plans call for finding another tenant for the cold storage facility. Long-term plans call for redeveloping the property, and Pobuda said his firm will work with the city of Hopkins to explore possible uses. “We’re thinking of a number of different possibilities, including office, retail and housing,” he said.
Pobuda said his firm was interested in the site because of its central location near Hwy. 169 and Excelsior Boulevard. The site also is close to a future extension of the light-rail transit line and the corporate campus of Cargill Inc. being built less than a mile away at Excelsior Crossing.