About a week after completing construction on Stadium Village Flats—a 120-unit student housing development in Minneapolis that is anchored by a CVS Pharmacy—The Opus Group has sold the property to Chicago-based Harrison Street Real Estate Capital.
The development—located at 850 Washington Avenue Southeast—was sold for $43 million and the transaction closed on Friday, according to Hennepin County property records.
Both the residential and commercial portions of the development are fully leased, according to Opus Development Corporation Senior Vice President and General Manager Dave Menke. Minnetonka-based Opus typically follows a “merchant-builder” model—meaning it builds, leases, and then sells properties, Menke told Twin Cities Business.
In a press release, Harrison Street said that Stadium Village Flats is among 12 student housing projects that it has acquired or begun developing thus far in 2012, which together are worth $400 million. Harrison bills itself as the third-largest owner of student housing projects in the country.
Opus in late 2010 announced plans to build the Stadium Village Flats. The project includes a fitness center, study areas, and a gaming room with big-screen televisions, among other amenities.
The Opus Group—owned by the Rauenhorst family—has recently made a comeback. After the commercial real estate market began to crumble in 2008, Opus—which was once Minnesota’s 10th-largest private company—and three of its five regional companies struggled to pay off lenders, leading to a spate of lawsuits and ultimately bankruptcy.
In 2009, three of Opus’s five regional companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection or Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation. The company has since reorganized and restructured itself.
But Opus has been picking up development again, and its revival was detailed earlier this year in The Wall Street Journal. Opus was also selected as the “most promising comeback” in Twin Cities Business’ 2012 “Best of Business” feature.
Planned or recently completed Opus projects include a 33-story apartment tower in downtown Minneapolis, the headquarters for Church & Dwight Company in New Jersey, and a two-building corporate campus for CSG International in Omaha.
Opus last month announced plans to develop The Station on Washington, a six-story development featuring 97 units of student housing and 11,200 square feet of ground-level retail space. The company expects to complete the project next August.