The Twin Cities division of commercial real estate firm Colliers International plans to move its headquarters to St. Louis Park.
In May, Colliers MSP will relocate from Minnetonka to a new site in the 1600 Tower near the Shops at West End. The company’s lease in Minnetonka is slated to expire that month.
Under a long-term lease with commercial real estate firm Accesso Partners LLC, Colliers MSP will operate on the third floor of the tower, which is located at 1600 Utica Avenue. Colliers MSP and Accesso declined to share other details about the lease.
Colliers MSP had been headquartered at 4350 Baker Road in Minnetonka since 2008, says CEO Jean Kane. PeopleNet Communications Corp., which leases space in a building immediately south, reached an agreement with the landlord to expand into Colliers MSP’s old space. (WPT Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust owns both buildings.)
“Staying in our existing building wasn’t an option,” Kane says.
But the new St. Louis Park location puts Colliers MSP in closer proximity to its workforce, says chief operating officer Mark Parten. Plus, the new headquarters will make things easier for brokers who do business in the southwest suburbs on a regular basis.
“Our employee base is closer toward St. Louis Park and closer into the city,” Parten says. “We wanted to minimize commute time and get better options for public transit for employees.”
The new headquarters sits across the street from the Shops at West End, which opened a decade ago. Though the area has struggled to attract retail tenants, there’s an abundance of dining, entertainment, and fitness options.
“We wanted walkable amenities for our employees,” says Parten. (In Minnetonka, there were few amenities within walking distance, he notes.)
Kane and Parten say Colliers MSP used employee feedback to determine the best spot for the new headquarters. Before making the final decision, the company conducted a wide-ranging employee survey that measured everything from technological preferences to opinions on furnishing and lighting.
Like many modern workplaces, Colliers MSP’s new office will have spaces designed to facilitate “collaborative work” and “chance encounters” between employees. But employees will still have their own dedicated workstations.
“It’s a mix of what we consider open-environment and traditional office space,” Kane says. “One of the things we learned from our employee and broker base is that people did want dedicated work areas.”
Architectural firm Nelson was tapped to design the new office space for Colliers MSP, while Intereum was chosen to provide furniture. Nelson is the architect of record for the West End Towers.
The headquarters will house about 140 employees.
The 1600 Tower is also home to a Life Time co-working space and an iHeartMedia office. It’s not clear if there’s any remaining space available in the tower. (Kane says the building is “pretty well leased.” Accesso declined to comment.)
In total, there are more than 1,600 people working in the West End area.