Stewart Lawrence Group Acquires 17-acre Hopkins Site
November 5, 2007
Minneapolis, MN – Minneapolis-based Stewart Lawrence Group announced that they have acquired the 17.1-acre site located at 325 Blake Road North in Hopkins, Minnesota. Currently, Atlas Cold Storage occupies a 264,000 public warehousing facility on the site.
Located ½ mile east of Highway 169 on Excelsior Boulevard, the site is included in the East End Redevelopment Plan as drafted by the City of Hopkins. Stewart Lawrence Group intends to continue to lease the existing facility for cold storage in the short term, and will be working closely with the City of Hopkins to re-zone the site for other uses and investigating long-term development scenarios.
“This is a unique opportunity to redevelop a parcel of this size located in the southwest suburbs and among such abundant amenities, including bike trails, Minnehaha Creek and the future site of light rail expansion,” said Larry Pobuda, co-founder of Stewart Lawrence Group. “With Cargill moving into a nearby site starting in 2008, and the demographics of the surrounding area, we are confident that we can redevelop the site to accommodate a wealth of needs,” Pobuda added.
Hopkins City Manager, Rick Getschow, said that this is a tremendous redevelopment opportunity for the city. “Atlas Cold Storage has been a great employer in this community, but the Mayor and City Council of Hopkins see this as a continuation of our focus on redeveloping this section of the city. In addition to the Cargill project at Excelsior Crossings, this project will bring much needed redevelopment to the site and spur further growth in the surrounding area,” Getschow concluded.
Jim DePietro of CB Richard Ellis represented Stewart Lawrence Group in the purchase. Tom Simon, Sandy Barin and Tom Bennett, also of CB Richard Ellis, represented Atlas Cold Storage.
Founded in 2006 by Stew Stender and Larry Pobuda, Stewart Lawrence Group is a real estate development and investment firm specializing in office, industrial, healthcare and multi-family assets. For more information on Stewart Lawrence Group, call 952-835-7100.