Just Sold: California broker brings new investors to deals

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Editor’s note: “Just Sold” is a Finance & Commerce feature based on certificates of real estate value recently filed for commercial transactions and significant residential transactions in Twin Cities counties. Additional details in the transactions come from Plat Research, the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office, company documents, online real estate listings, F&C archives, CoStar and other research. Some purchase prices and per-unit calculations have been rounded.

When California real estate broker Tom Bracken and his wife retired and moved to the Twin Cities seven years ago to be near grandkids, he soon took up fishing — for new investments.

In his fifth deal here, Bracken and friend Robert Newstead led two groups of investors in the $4.07 million purchase of the 22-unit Willow Greens apartment complex at 4350-4380 Parklawn Ave. in Edina.

The investors, using an entity called WG LLC, bought the property from Willow Greens Apartments LLC, an entity of Fargo, North Dakota-based Campbell Properties, which paid $3.5 million in 2013.

“All of our deals are syndications,” Bracken said. They typically involve investors they know from the East and West Coasts. The portfolio now includes two commercial buildings and three apartment properties with a total of 67 units.

The 51-year-old Willow Greens complex underwent extensive improvements in a condo conversion in 2007. The conversion failed, with only one unit sold. Campbell bought back the sold condo and repositioned the property as apartments.

The two garden apartment buildings include a total of two studios, 16 two-bedroom units and four three-bedroom units ranging from 600 square feet to 1,515 square feet, with rents from $1,350 to 1,975, according to CoStar.

Jacob Frishman and Mox Gunderson represented Campbell in the sale, with help from colleagues Dan Linnell, Josh Talberg and Adam Haydon, all of JLL.

Campbell Properties manages 4,000 units in 50 properties in 20 cities in North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. In the end, the Edina property proved to be too far from company’s other properties to be practical, Frishman said.

Campbell had no problem finding a buyer.

“We had 20 groups tour the property and fielded multiple offers,” Frishman said.

The sale price works out to $185,000 per unit. The average sales price per unit for apartments in the Twin Cities metro area is $134,586, according to the Finance & Commerce Apartment Sales Tracker at finance-commerce.com. The tracker has recorded the sale of 54,734 apartment units since Aug. 31, 2011.

Purchase price: $4.07 million, with a $1.001 million down payment and a new mortgage

Price per unit: $185,000

Last sale: $3.5 in 2013

Date of deed: 8-19-19

ECRV released: 8-19-19

U.S. Bath buys Eden Prairie plant

Description: 34,604-square-foot manufacturing building, built in 1975, renovated in 1981 and 2013, with three dock doors, one drive-in door and 18-20 feet clear height, on a 2.33-acre lot at 7300 Washington Ave. S. in Eden Prairie

Buyer: Black Diamond Investment LLC, an entity related to U.S. Bath Systems, Burnsville

Seller: ATA Development LLC, Eden Prairie

Purchase price: $2.87 million, with no down payment and a new mortgage; price includes $150,000 in office and warehouse furniture; seller is allowed to lease for up to four months

Price per square foot: $82.94

The transaction: A Burnsville company has paid $2.87 million for a 34,604-square-foot manufacturing building at 7300 S. Washington Ave. in Eden Prairie.

Black Diamond Investment LLC, an entity related to U.S. Bath Systems, closed July 31 on the acquisition from ATA Development LLC, an investment owner whose tenant plans to move.

Executive Director Kris Smeltzer and Associate Danny McNamara of the Bloomington office of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller.

“We had a lot of interest in it,” Smeltzer said. “There’s just not a lot available in this area, not this size.”

The building, which was built in 1975 and remodeled twice, lies in the southwest quadrant of Valley View Road and Highway 169. It is about 45 percent office space and 55 percent industrial space.

Last sale: $1.51 million in 2011

Date of deed: 7-31-19

ECRV released: 8-15-19

EMSCO pays $3.7 million for Fridley warehouse

Description: 121,000-square-foot industrial warehouse, with seven loading docks and 17-foot clear height, built in 1964 on 6.16 acres at 99 77th Way NE in Fridley

Buyer: BT99-77WAY LLC, c/o Emsco, Fridley

Seller: Air System Components Inc., Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Purchase price: $3.7 million with no down payment and a new mortgage

Price per square foot: $30.58

The transaction: An entity related to Fridley-based Electric Motor Supply Co., or EMSCO, has paid $3.7 million for a second warehouse in the city. EMSCO, which buys and sells used and refurbished electrical equipment, closed Aug. 9 on the acquisition from Air System Components Inc. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which vacated the property.

The building last sold for $3.5 million in 1997.

Senior Vice Presidents Matt Oelschlager and John Ryden, with Senior Associate Mike Bowen and Associate J.P. Maloney of the Minneapolis office of CBRE represented the seller.

Last sale: $3.5 million in 1997

Date of deed: 8-9-19

ECRV released: 8-14-19