MINNEAPOLIS—The Twin Cities region is home to many Fortune 500 companies, but as the needs of office users change, some firms have left their headquarters, giving developers the opportunity to rethink and reposition the now-empty assets. A joint venture comprising Florida-based Elion Partners and Minnesota's Kraus-Anderson, for example, has just completed the acquisition of the former regional headquarters of State Farm Insurance, a 100-acre site located at the southeast corner of Radio Dr. and I-94 in suburban Woodbury. The site includes a 400,000-square-foot office building. The partners plan to renovate and lease the empty building and transform the parcel into CityPlace, a 700,000-square-foot mixed-use campus with shopping, restaurants, a hotel and additional office space.

The office building is only about 15 years old and “in impeccable condition,” Juan DeAngulo, managing partner with Elion Partners, tells GlobeSt.com. It has a three-story atrium, open design and natural lighting. Transwestern has been hired to lease the property and will open an on-site leasing office later this month.

But employers today feel a great need to attract the next generation of workers that have largely rejected suburban-style office campuses. “They are all about having the type of amenities that can provide an active life,” DeAngulo says. The new mixed-use campus will have, among other amenities, a lake in a park-like setting, natural wildlife and landscaping, and give employees the opportunity “to go for a walk at the end of the day. That's the type of thing that the younger generation is looking for.”