Just off the intersection of Crosstown and France Avenue here, Acme's location is not the first that one might associate with the term "ghetto." But the problem was that Acme was situated dead center between two Qwest Communications switching stations (also called"central offices")--too far to string fiberoptic cable or provide top quality T1 service.
With T1 connections, every foot you are away from the central office becomes more expensive and there's more chance of failure, says Julie Silverman, director of network engineering at Acme. She says it seemed their lines would short out on a regular basis--not a good thing if you are an Internet service provider like Acme.
As a result, Acme recently moved 10 blocks away to France Place at 3601 Minnesota Drive, also in Edina--a mere two blocks away from the nearest central office. The firm is moving into 2,200 sf of space, about twice what it had, Silverman says.
Another attraction to moving there was that it could share Internet backup service with a fellow tenant called Sihope.
Meanwhile, Waddell & Reed also moved because it wanted to upgrade its telecommunications services. In it's case, it was not so much a matter of where itsprevious building was but who the owner was. "Five years ago, it wasn't an issue," says Roy Bredholt Jr., division manager for Waddell & Reed. ""But now you have to have technology interwoven throughout every part of your business plan."
Bredholt says the owner of the previous building wanted a cut of any new service brought into the building --so his firm decided it would make sense to move elsewhere to keep those costs down, especially given the ever-increasing need for added services.
Like Acme, Waddell & Reed ended up moving just a few blocks away and ended up leasing 6,348 sf at France Place as well. A factor in both those decisions was that United Properties has made a point of boning up on telecommunications services in recognition of the key factor it plays in commercial real estate these days.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
