SON headquarters sale is finalized
New project will have apartments, retail, and new offices for Sons of Norway
Photo: Ryan Companies / City of Minneapolis
The Sons of Norway will continue to be headquartered in the new complex. In this rendering the office space that the organization will lease is seen to the left.
CBRE
Minneapolis
The sale of Sons of Norway’s 60,000-square-foot headquarters building has been finalized for $16.8 million. The building sits on 2.17 acres of land in the heart of Minneapolis’s Uptown neighborhood, and a mixed-use project is now planned for the site.
The buyer, a partnership between Ryan Companies U.S., Inc., and Weidner Apartment Homes, plans a mixed-use apartment project on the site. The project includes 317 units of housing, retail, and 15,000 square feet of first-floor office space for Sons of Norway, which has operated in Uptown for more than 55 years. Once complete, Sons of Norway plans to continue business operations on the site as a financial services and international cultural organization.
“We are incredibly excited to close this sale for our client and to allow this best-in-class development team to begin this transformational project,” said Brian Pankratz, First VP of CBRE, which represented Sons of Norway in the sale.
Sons of Norway CEO Eivind J. Heiberg stated, “Uptown Minneapolis has been our home for nearly six decades. We look forward to returning and maintaining the wonderful Nordic presence in the neighborhood. In the meantime, we’ll continue to serve the insurance and cultural needs of our members from our temporary offices.”
Ryan VP of Real Estate Development Tony Barranco told Finance and Commerce that demolition should begin in a few weeks.
The planned new development will consist of several buildings, each unique, of six to seven stories with underground parking, with a public walkway through the middle to provide access to ground-floor retail. A tower will be the focal point of the complex on Lake Street and Humboldt Ave. The structure is inspired by Norwegian lighthouses.
Sons of Norway, a financial services and international cultural organization headquartered in Minneapolis, promotes and preserves the heritage and culture of Norway, celebrates its relationships with other Nordic countries, and provides insurance and financial products to its members.
This article originally appeared in the April 6, 2018, issue of The Norwegian American. To subscribe, visit SUBSCRIBE or call us at (206) 784-4617.
