MINNEAPOLIS—The Twin Cities' office market has attracted a massive amount of investment in the past few years, including a great deal of institutional capital. In 2016, several of the Minneapolis' most notable office properties have already been put up for sale, and the owner of Wells Fargo Place , a 37-story, 656,000 square foot landmark class A office asset in downtown St. Paul, has decided it's now time to put it on the market. An affiliate of Unilev Capital Corp. bought the tower, built in 1987, in 2006. The company has brought in a team from Cushman & Wakefield/NorthMarq to handle the sale. Key current tenants include AgriBank , Minnesota State Colleges & Universities , Wells Fargo , the Internal Revenue Service and Larson King . “The fundamentals in the Twin Cities are very, very strong,” Terry Kingston , executive director of Cushman & Wakefield/NorthMarq's capital markets group, tells GlobeSt.com. “Our unemployment rate is very low,” less than 4%, meaning “we are at virtually full employment.” But although this helps major properties here garner a lot of interest, he attributes the high level of recent activity to the regular ebb and flow of the business cycle. Many investors bought these properties at the top of the market in 2005 or 2006, and “private equity guys,” or those looking for a little more risk, also bought up their share of the market in 2010. And whether they have owned the properties for roughly around five years or ten, these owners have decided “it's time to sell and redeploy capital.” Buyers of class A properties like Wells Fargo Plaza and Minneapolis' IDS Center, which was recently put up for sale, can expect to end up with high-performing properties, but with little chance that new competition will arise, Kingston says, since rents in the best office complexes approach $20 per square foot, but a new development would need to charge roughly $24 to $25 to justify the cost of construction. “You can get yourself a double-digit return here,” and the region's class A buildings generally don't need updates or a lot of work. Earlier this year, Frauenshuh Commercial Real Estate Group re-acquired Lawson Commons, which, along with the Wells Fargo building, is probably the top office property in St. Paul. The Bloomington, MN-based company developed the property in 2000, and after selling it in 2005, stayed on to handle the leasing. The strength of the city's office market was shown when Frauenshuh brought in Hartford, CT-based Travelers Cos. , which leased about 63,000 square feet in Lawson Commons in September, bringing the 13-story tower to full occupancy. Kingston says the Wells Fargo building may not attract international capital, but it will have a very wide appeal. Its occupancy is in the high-80s, and he believes that it will be a perfect fit for investors looking for stable cash flow. And the increasingly uncertain state of the economy may also bring in the value-add investors that are now looking for properties with lower risk. A big bonus for anyone that buys this property is that they will also have the option to purchase the 1255-stall parking structure, generally considered St. Paul's best, just across the street, at a 15% discount. Minneapolis garners the lion's share of attention between the two cities, but lately St. Paul has started to come into its own, Kingston says. As reported in GlobeSt.com, the Minneapolis-based Opus Group , for example, recently launched a six-story, mixed-use luxury apartment and retail development on W. Seventh St., and the warehouse district near downtown has already experienced a wave of redevelopment. Furthermore, a light rail system now connects St. Paul to its counterpart across the river, giving its office users the ability to attract employees who live in Minneapolis. He expects that as C&W/NorthMarq shops the Wells Fargo property around, prospective buyers will look at St. Paul and realize, “there is a lot going on over there that we have been missing.” Wells Fargo MINNEAPOLIS—The Twin Cities' office market has attracted a massive amount of investment in the past few years, including a great deal of institutional capital. In 2016, several of the Minneapolis' most notable office properties have already been put up for sale, and the owner of Wells Fargo Place , a 37-story, 656,000 square foot landmark class A office asset in downtown St. Paul, has decided it's now time to put it on the market. An affiliate of Unilev Capital Corp. bought the tower, built in 1987, in 2006. The company has brought in a team from Cushman & Wakefield/NorthMarq to handle the sale. Key current tenants include AgriBank , Minnesota State Colleges & Universities , Wells Fargo , the Internal Revenue Service and Larson King . “The fundamentals in the Twin Cities are very, very strong,” Terry Kingston , executive director of Cushman & Wakefield/NorthMarq's capital markets group, tells GlobeSt.com. “Our unemployment rate is very low,” less than 4%, meaning “we are at virtually full employment.” But although this helps major properties here garner a lot of interest, he attributes the high level of recent activity to the regular ebb and flow of the business cycle. Many investors bought these properties at the top of the market in 2005 or 2006, and “private equity guys,” or those looking for a little more risk, also bought up their share of the market in 2010. And whether they have owned the properties for roughly around five years or ten, these owners have decided “it's time to sell and redeploy capital.” Buyers of class A properties like Wells Fargo Plaza and Minneapolis' IDS Center, which was recently put up for sale, can expect to end up with high-performing properties, but with little chance that new competition will arise, Kingston says, since rents in the best office complexes approach $20 per square foot, but a new development would need to charge roughly $24 to $25 to justify the cost of construction. “You can get yourself a double-digit return here,” and the region's class A buildings generally don't need updates or a lot of work. Earlier this year, Frauenshuh Commercial Real Estate Group re-acquired Lawson Commons, which, along with the Wells Fargo building, is probably the top office property in St. Paul. The Bloomington, MN-based company developed the property in 2000, and after selling it in 2005, stayed on to handle the leasing. The strength of the city's office market was shown when Frauenshuh brought in Hartford, CT-based Travelers Cos. , which leased about 63,000 square feet in Lawson Commons in September, bringing the 13-story tower to full occupancy. Kingston says the Wells Fargo building may not attract international capital, but it will have a very wide appeal. Its occupancy is in the high-80s, and he believes that it will be a perfect fit for investors looking for stable cash flow. And the increasingly uncertain state of the economy may also bring in the value-add investors that are now looking for properties with lower risk. A big bonus for anyone that buys this property is that they will also have the option to purchase the 1255-stall parking structure, generally considered St. Paul's best, just across the street, at a 15% discount. Minneapolis garners the lion's share of attention between the two cities, but lately St. Paul has started to come into its own, Kingston says. As reported in GlobeSt.com, the Minneapolis-based Opus Group , for example, recently launched a six-story, mixed-use luxury apartment and retail development on W. Seventh St., and the warehouse district near downtown has already experienced a wave of redevelopment. Furthermore, a light rail system now connects St. Paul to its counterpart across the river, giving its office users the ability to attract employees who live in Minneapolis. He expects that as C&W/NorthMarq shops the Wells Fargo property around, prospective buyers will look at St. Paul and realize, “there is a lot going on over there that we have been missing.”