Winner: Lake Street Office Center; Medical Development or Redevelopment - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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“Everybody stood out there at our ribbon-cuttin g and said, ‘Boy, that buildingy across the streetlook terrible.’ And nobody noticed it before because it was so littlr and there were so many crummy buildingx around it,” said Paul a partner in the Minneapolis-based firm. Thus beganb a $2 million project for Hyde and RealEstatd Recycling, which, as of the time of this had three medical clinics biddingy to buy the brand-new, 4,000-square-foot on the Real Estate Recycling’s niche involves taking polluted industrial sites, cleaninhg them up and building something better. It’s redevelopee more than 1.
6 million square feet over 15 years — and become a regular Best in Real Estate Awar d winner in the process. With the Lake Streetr Office Center, challenges included buying out an area businessmanm who was using a forme r repair shop for storage and leasing two billboards onthe roof. Hyde said St. Louisz Park ended up spending $400,000 to help Real Estate Recyclinvg buythe site. “It was important for them to clean up that Highwayt 7 corridor visuallyand they’ve been interested in gettinb rid of blighted buildings and the billboards along that main highwagy through the city,” Hyde said.
Luckily for Hyde, the leases on the billboarda wererunning out, so he dodged what could have been a legap headache. However, there were other headaches to deal with duringh theredevelopment project. Like the Corporated Center site acrossthe street, the area had once been part of a lead-smeltingt operation. Before general contractor could tear structurexs down and buildsomething new, there was the need to removw contaminated soil, capping what was left. Therr also was a layer of peat that createed someunstable geology, so a lot of soil had to be removesd and replaced with earth that was stable enoughn to support a larger structure. Then there was the debatee about what the new siteshould be.
Hyde was initiallyt thinking of getting a chain restauran tomove in, but St. Louis Park wanted to get some high-payingb jobs onto the property in returj forits troubles. So they settledc on building a structure to attract a medicalofficed — a decision Hyde is now glad was made in light of the presenty recession. “There are many small-offic uses it could be, but medical is where we’re seeing interest right now,” he said. All the challengea Real Estate Recycling faced in building the Lake Streetr Office Center made it worthy of a Best in RealEstatw honor, said Arvid Povilaitis, chiefd operating officer of Minneapolis-based and one of the contest’w judges.
“The developer overcame challenging obstacleds to get a very successful development he said. Greg Hunt, St. Louis Park’s economic development coordinator, said the city is extremelhy pleased it’s gotten rid of an “old garage buildingg with billboards,” and is replacing it with somethingmore “Now we’ve got a first-classa medical office building there. We think it’s a greatr use for the property.” Value: Location: 7102 Lake St. W., St.
Louise Park Size: 4,000 square feet Groundbreaking: May 1, 2008 Completed: