urbanMSP

Ugh...
I thought Target gave up on building a new tower after the debacle with Lisa Goodman and the NIMBY squad.

That's a Nasa half-truth that's been repeated so many times people think it's true.

Exactly!

Not that these political interventions really do much usually...but good to see he is paying attention:

http://www.twincities.com/breakingnews/ ... eo-layoffs

Really don't care for this new CEO...he has not commitment to the state of MN, and he is going to be bad news, I think.

Certainly Target is attracting other business to Minneapolis, so if Target is scaling back other firms may do the same. Additionally, there may also be less demand for hotel rooms. In the short-term, the office and hotel markets might be affected, but I think that Target will be able to recover. They're still an important retailer and they're able to present themselves as an alternative to Walmart.

I don't think that the businesses that cluster around Target will necessarily be effected by this. They're providing services/trying to sell Target stuff. Just because Target makes their bureaucracy more efficient shouldn't change the number of employees that these outside companies would need.

As long as Target maintains or grows its bricks and mortar presence, I'd believe that these other businesses should remain.

Unless they bring more stuff in-house or demand "efficiencies" from these businesses.

Target really isn't expanding in the short term. They're opening a handful of stores and they'll probably close a few too. I'm sure Target will survive, but I don't think it's going to emerge from all this as the same company - for better AND for worse.

Couple things - the vendor situation probably won't feel much impact... their business is mainly with merchants or store ops. The marketing division will also likely maintain the same number of agencies to do the same work since there may be less staff at headquarters. The other thing is that the media isn't exactly correct when they say that the Dayton family doesn't have a direct role in Target decisions. The family is still a major stock holder and Wall Street really respects them. Wall Street see the Dayton name as Dayton Hudson Marshall Fields, Target, Mrvyns (oops), B Dalton Booksellers and other smaller spin offs like Department 56... As recently as a couple years ago Doug Dayton was frequently pulled in to high level discussions and part of the decision process. Target likes owning their real estate and offices. There is still a possibility that the Multifoods tower employees could be moved to an additional tower across the mall from the current towers. They are definitely not is any hurry here - they have bigger issues to focus on. Another big variable is what are they doing with the Brooklyn Park campus? Move downtown employees out there? or is that campus really a benefit? Much of their strategy was that the campus was to grow their buildings and open it up to other companies / potential tenants with the longterm effect of raising value and possibly become a significant revenue center. That may also be on the chopping block.

Varde Partners to lease 36,000 square feet on floors 32-33 of the AT&T Tower.
http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/p ... ed-to.html

There have been a handful of smaller firms announcing moves downtown in the past 6 months or so (Aima, Weber Shandwick, Young America, etc.), but I'd say this one is even more notable since they are moving from the 8500 Tower @ Normandale Lakes (the tallest one). 8500 is arguably the premier Class-A building in the suburbs, and the list of amenities at Normandale Lakes is pretty lengthy. It is perhaps the sole suburban office park that could hold a candle compared to working downtown (minus the driving of course). I'd say this news is pretty darn significant and bodes well for future moves from suburb to downtown.

Also, I'll bet there's a waiting list for their space in the 8500 Tower...let's just hope it isn't filled by someone leaving downtown


EDIT: I see Weber Shandwick is also leaving Normandale Lakes, currently in the 8000 Tower. Perhaps the new owners of Normandale Lakes really hiked the rents and it just makes financial sense now to relocate to 2nd/3rd-tier buildings downtown (like AT&T, 5th St Towers, etc.)

^In regards to Weber Shandwick, they're owned by the same advertising holding company that Mithun (formerly Campbell Mithun) is, so I recall that being one of the reasons they moved (or at least something they mentioned).

^In regards to Weber Shandwick, they're owned by the same advertising holding company that Mithun (formerly Campbell Mithun) is, so I recall that being one of the reasons they moved (or at least something they mentioned).

Exactly right. Same reason Omnicom is moving their owned Minneapolis agencies to 5th Street Towers.

Perhaps the new owners of Normandale Lakes really hiked the rents and it just makes financial sense now to relocate to 2nd/3rd-tier buildings downtown (like AT&T, 5th St Towers, etc.)

I'm sure they did, considering that portfolio of properties was just recently sold at a fairly astronomical value, up nearly 40% in just a couple of years:

http://www.startribune.com/blogs/282295131.html

I don't know if rents rose 40%, but you gotta figure a pretty steep increase.

ATTN:

Target layoff conversation has been moved to "Twin Cities Business News" in Anything Goes.

Target's office needs are not going to change in the near term, so it's not super relevant to this thread, at least not now. They have long term leases and options to sublease space in City Center. This doesn't really change anything for the Downtown office market, as Target was already not planning a new office building anytime soon. They still aren't.

500 Jobs to Minneapolis from Oakdale

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/b ... polis.html

Education Credit Management Corp. (ECMC) will relocate from Oakdale to an office building in downtown Minneapolis, bringing its 500 employees along with it.
The education nonprofit signed a letter of intent to move into 122,000 square feet in the Ameriprise Client Service Center building at 901 Third Ave. S., CEO Dave Hawn said in an interview.
Minneapolis-based Ameriprise Financial Inc. (NYSE: AMP) owns the building and operates a large client service center there.
The move is being prompted by ECMC's desire to attract and retain workers, Hawn said.
"We're pretty far along [planning the move], but we're just in the early stages of a formalized lease agreement," Hawn said. "It's kind of a big move for our folks here because we're in a St. Paul suburb and going to downtown Minneapolis is a large adjustment for a lot of our employees, but we think it's the right thing to do."
Hawn said ECMC anticipates doing quite a bit of hiring in its new location. "Obviously Minneapolis is a far larger labor market," he said.
ECMC plans to move before February 2016. It has been a tenant in Imation Corp.'s Oakdale headquarters since 2008, when the company (with about 320 employees at the time) moved from downtown St. Paul.

Man, that's a huge snub to downtown St. Paul. Get your act together East siders!

Recent office market report for 1st qtr 2015 can be accessed on this site.
http://dtz.cassidyturley.com/markets/us ... is-st-paul

Shows vacancy down to 12.3% downtown with 129,000 s.f. of absorption in the first quarter. It will be interesting to see the impact of the new single-user buildings, primarily Wells Fargo, when they open. Hopefully will have less impact on Class A space since the Wells employees will be vacating primarily Class B space. If so, and absorption of A space continues, it bodes well for a new tower.

That's good news! I don't recall what vacancy rates were in downtown when it experienced its last boom/mini-boom in the late 1990's. I want to say vacancies were closer to 5%...

That's good news! I don't recall what vacancy rates were in downtown when it experienced its last boom/mini-boom in the late 1990's. I want to say vacancies were closer to 5%...

I'd say unless we get some major employers into DT from the burbs or a company moving into MPLS I still see a slow drop in vacancy rates for the next couple of years. If we can get to 8% for class A by 2020, I'd think we were doing well.

Recent office market report for 1st qtr 2015 can be accessed on this site.
http://dtz.cassidyturley.com/markets/us ... is-st-paul

Shows vacancy down to 12.3% downtown with 129,000 s.f. of absorption in the first quarter. It will be interesting to see the impact of the new single-user buildings, primarily Wells Fargo, when they open. Hopefully will have less impact on Class A space since the Wells employees will be vacating primarily Class B space. If so, and absorption of A space continues, it bodes well for a new tower.

When I spoke to some people involved with the new Wells towers they didn't seem to think it would have an impact on class A vacancies. Many of the groups will be coming from the current Wells tower, but many back office positions will be moving from class B and/or C space in North Star, Baker and other buildings. Wells renewed their lease at their signature tower and are not giving up any space, but re-stacking everything.

Perkins and Will is moving out of the Essex building and moving into IDS Center. This is big news for me cause I'll be touring in the summer

http://finance-commerce.com/2015/05/per ... ds-center/

PS: Adam, is this a bigger space than their Essex space?

Bizjournals article on the move

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/b ... ffice.html