Out-of-state investors zero in on Twin Cities real estate

Out-of-state real estate investors from Malaysia to Miami are spending billions on Twin Cities apartment complexes and commercial buildings, including some of the most iconic office towers on the downtown Minneapolis skyline.

Even celebrity rainmakers like Chicago-based real estate king Sam Zell are forking over big dollars for property in local ZIP codes.

An unprecedented amount of cash is flowing into the Twin Cities, said Abe Appert, a vice president with the CBRE office in Minneapolis.

These outside buyers, mostly institutional investors, real estate investment trusts and wealthy individuals, are attracted to the Twin Cities because of its strong, diverse economy and relatively low housing prices. In addition, the area has one of the tightest rental markets in the country, and outside money is helping fuel a building boom.

On the commercial side, real estate investors are finding themselves priced out of more-expensive markets on the coasts. So theyre hunting for top-notch properties in strong secondary markets like Minneapolis, St. Louis and Denver.

As returns get tighter from their core markets, institutional investors are really challenged to continue to earn a good return, so theyre digging into secondary markets, said Mark Kolsrud, senior vice president of investment sales for Colliers Twin Cities office.

But outside investors are a picky lot they tend to snap up the most-desirable or core assets locally, Kolsrud added. Some of these properties are relatively glamorous, such as the signature IDS Center, Minnesotas tallest building. Others are relatively obscure, including a dozen workhorse office/industrial suburban properties that were sold last month to a Connecticut buyer for $56 million.

In the first three quarters of 2013, five Twin Cities office properties, including some already owned by outside investors, raked in more than $1.7 billion, while industrial properties gleaned about $116 million, according to a Colliers report. (Full-year numbers are not yet available.)

An overlooked market

Were a market that people didnt pay much attention to before, said Herb Tousley, director of the Shenehon Center for Real Estate at the University of St. Thomas. But now some of these institutional players are looking for a place where they can put a good chunk of their money to work.

At CBRE, sales of apartment complexes are up 25 percent over last year and eight of the companys 10 biggest deals involved out-of-town investors. Six of those buyers were first-timers in the Twin Cities.

That includes Stoneleigh at the Reserve, a 361-unit apartment complex in Plymouth. which sold for $53 million to a management company in Kirkland, Wash. And a Dallas-based real estate investment firm paid $37.25 million, or a record $236,000 per unit, for the 158-unit Lake Calhoun City Apartments in Minneapolis.

Appert said he received bids worth more than $3 billion for just $500 million worth of sales last year, all of it coming from outside the region, suggesting plenty of pent-up demand for local buildings.

Were even starting to hear rumblings from foreign capital about investment in this market, he said.

From Malaysia to North Loop

When Brunsfield, a Malaysian development company, was scouting for a place to build its first U.S. project, the company chose Minneapolis. Recently, the firm opened the Brunsfield North Loop, a boutique apartment building in a hip neighborhood on the edge of downtown.

Vincent Lim, general manager for Brunsfield America, said the company chose Minneapolis because of the states healthy economy, the abundance of international companies that are headquartered here, and a healthy and well-educated workforce.

And we are actively pursuing other development sites, said Lim, noting that the company is particularly interested in sites near the University of Minnesota or in the Linden Hills neighborhood.