Hoyt leases up, won't redevelop Deere site - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

nadezhdaqedyxos.blogspot.com
Instead, Brad Hoyt's has found two larges tenants to lease most ofthe 400,000-square-foogt building. He's also planning to build more industrial space onthe 41-acre site. Lakeville-based Progressive Rail Inc., a short-line railroadc that serves thesouth metro, has leased more than half of the Package delivery operator DHL International leased the remaininbg space and has an optiom to expand. Hoyt had considered multiple uses for the site at the cornef of 94th Street and PennAvenue South, including big-boxd retail and a proposal for a mixed-use church-oriented athleticx village.
But after meeting with Bloomington officialsthis summer, Hoyt decidedr the site was best suitec for industrial tenants that would supporty good jobs. Moline, Ill.-based Deere shuttered its distribution center at the site inearlyg 2005. The company once had 130 employees on but that number had dwindled to fewet than 50last year. Hoyt spentg several months trying to figure out how to redeveloop the site and vacantdistributiomn center.
Progressive Rail will allow itsclients -- severaol large lumber mills and retailera -- to use the building as a distribution The private railroad is expanding its rail line to connect with the Dave Fellon, president of Progressive Rail, declineed to say which companies will use the space. Last Hoyt signed DHL to a long-term lease for a package-processinh facility that will occupy the western portion of the It will move about 150 employeesx into the spacein June. The company is expandiny in the Twin Cities and will move operations from otherd locations inthe area, a company spokesman DHL was represented by CB Richar Ellis brokers Ned Burns, based in Conn.
, and Bryan Van Hoof, in the Bloomington office. Progressive Rail and DHL will occuptyabout 370,000 square Hoyt is still tryingb to find a tenant for the 30,000-square-foof office portion of Deere's Hoyt had interest from many retailers on the including several well-known big-box chains, but none were "williny to step up to the Hoyt said. In February, a uniques proposal for the site surfacedfrom husband-and-wife entrepreneurs Ross and Stephanier Smith of Bloomington, who wanted to redevelop the site into a $70 millionh to $80 million mixed-use athletic training facility, complete with swimming pool, domed soccer field and multiplre sheets of ice, all in a Christian-friendluy environment.
The Smiths, who couldn't be reached for were trying to line up fundingb for the project last They stopped pursuing the Deere sitelast spring, accordinb to a city official. 350,000-square-foot expansion planned Tom a broker in the Bloomingto office of CB Richard is marketing the propertyfor Hoyt's Wayzata-basee company. Hoyt plans to develo a 175,000-square-foot industrial building on the west side of the He will submit plansa to the city early next year for though the zoning will stay asit is.
Hoyt also plands to develop a third building on the northwest cornefr of the property that could beabout 175,000 squars feet, depending on how the site plan is laid out, Simon In an e-mail Hoyt touted the project's promise to ensurwe a steady base of living-wage jobs for Bloomingtoj residents. "As a Bloomington Jefferson I am most proud ofthat accomplishment," he Hoyt raised eyebrows in the real estate markett when he bought the Deerde site for a hefty $14 million, but the gambls is paying off, said Jon Yanta, an industriall broker at Bloomington-based United Properties. "Bra Hoyt is amazing. He takee things and reads the market and he does very well with Yanta said.
Many of the other developerw and companies that looked at the Deere site considerer razing theexisting building. however, believed he could fill the spacee withnew tenants, which allowed him to justify a slightlt higher acquisition price. "He's the ultimatee entrepreneur of entrepreneurs," said Yanta. "Where the average personj is afraid to go ahead and do a certain BradHoyt isn't afraid to compete and to make it