CCP 09-24-2013 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Minneapolis-St.Paul 900 2nd Avenue South MAIN+1 952 897 7700 Suite 55FAX+1 952 842 7700 Colliers Minneapolis,MN 55402 www.colliers corn INTERNATIONAL TO: Grant Fernelius FROM: Craig Lien SUBJECT: Summary of August 21st EDC Meeting Thank you for the opportunity to sit down with the EDC to discuss New Brighton Exchange and the current market conditions for commercial real estate. Our charge is to find businesses that need a new location, and that meet the objectives of quality jobs and high tax base. The last five years have proved difficult for most businesses, both office and high tech. This has resulted in companies looking strategically at their expenses and cutting back wherever they can. Unfortunately, commercial real estate is one area that can be targeted without having a significant effect on the bottom line. As a consequence, several things have occurred which have resulted in a reduction of space needs. Due to layoffs, many companies are sitting on excess space that they currently own or lease. There is an ongoing effort to reduce the amount of square feet per employee by going to cube environments, reducing office sizes, and even office-sharing as many employees work flexible schedules away from the office. Another area that hurts new development is that companies have become very price sensitive. In the North Twin Cities market, from Maple grove to Little Canada, there are currently 1,688,000 square feet vacant in 25 buildings. Seven of these buildings have over 75,000 square feet vacant, which is our target market. Since 2011, when we began working on this project, there have been six new buildings either completed or currently under construction, plus additions to the United Health Care Campus and the Target North Campus. All of these buildings have a specific geography requirement that we did not meet(except for the APi Group building). We remain enthusiastic about the location, and we thoroughly enjoy our relationship with the City of New Brighton. The Planning Department and Grant Fernelius have been outstanding in their efforts to work with us and give us great tools for marketing. We continue to aggressively market New Brighton Exchange and look forward to finding businesses excited about locating in New Brighton.