Just Sold: Interstate Partners Gets New Name, New Orders, New Home

Editor’s note: “Just Sold” is a Finance & Commerce feature based on certificates of real estate value recently filed for commercial transactions and significant residential transactions in Twin Cities counties. Additional details in the transactions come from Plat Research, the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office, company documents, online real estate listings, F&C archives, CoStar and other research. Some purchase prices and per-unit calculations have been rounded. Full prices are available on the CRVs posted here.

Tired from nearly four decades in the business and bruised by the recession, Greg Miller thought about retiring in 2012, but changed his mind and brought in Eric Simmer and Lonnie Provencher to help him rebuild Insterstate Partners and take it over when the time was right.

That time is now.

“It’s been a great run,” Miller said Monday.

One of the founders of the commercial real estate company back in 2000, Miller hands it off this week to Simmer and Provencher, equal partners who already have moved the offices from St. Paul to Eden Prairie and are rebranding the company Interstate Development. The new name and upcoming website redesign reflect the new owners’ decision to formalize the separation between the Minnesota operations and those of Miller’s colleagues in Wisconsin and Illinois. Miller will retain his ownership stakes in the company’s portfolio properties, but won’t be part of day-to-day operations.

In one of Miller’s last deals, IP Jackson LLC, the ownership entity he used for the St. Paul building, closed on a $1.5 million sale to Channel Enterprises of Minnesota LLC. The buyer is an entity related to Isthmus Engineering Inc., a tenant in the building. The law firm of Swor & Gotto will continue to lease space.

Miller bought the 9,000-square-foot building, built in 1971, for $865,000 in October of 2008, just before the economy crashed. He hung on to the new headquarters, but had to cut his small staff and his portfolio.

“We had to sell a lot of stuff to stay alive,” Miller said of that time, which he called the toughest in his career. Still, he considers himself and his company fortunate.

“We had good partners, we had good properties, we had good investors,” he said. He also had good timing, he said. He sold his office portfolio in 2007, shedding the properties that would be hardest hit by the crash.

While there were losses, the company has seen far more success, he said.

Over the last 15 years the company has acquired and developed more than 1 million square feet of space in 20 buildings, including Grand Oak Business Park in Eagan, Rice Creek Corporate Park in Shoreview, BridgePoint Business Park in South St. Paul and Boulder Lakes Business Park in Eagan.

The company is set to close in February on the sale of a 10-acre parcel planned as part of the proposed 194-acre Vikings headquarters and training site in Eagan.

Simmer and Provencher were unavailable Monday — and Miller soon will be. Miller, who turns 65 in May, plans to travel for the next few months before considering any new ventures.

Purchase price: $1.5 million, with a $50,000 down payment and new financing

Price per square foot: $166.67

Property ID: 31-29-22-43-1531

Date of deed: 10-14-15

ECRV released: 12-21-15

7030 Sixth St. N., Oakdale

Description: 24,329 SF Class B flex light manufacturing building, built in 1997, on 2.35 acres

Buyer: 7030 6th Street North LLC, an entity related to Mike McGrath of MG McGrath, Maplewood

Seller: Thomas and Gale Panek, Stillwater

Purchase price: $2.16 million, with a $432,000 down payment and a new mortgage

Price per square foot: $73.60

The transaction: The CEO of a Maplewood construction company has put together a private investor group to buy the Oakdale headquarters building of Minuti-Ogle Co. Inc. from that company’s former owner.

Thomas and Gale Panek closed Dec. 21 on the sale of the 29,349-square-foot contemporary building at 7030 Sixth St. N. to 7030 6th Street North LLC, an entity related to Mike McGrath of MG McGrath Inc., an architectural surfaces company. McGrath wasn’t available Monday. A spokesperson indicated the property was a personal investment. The Paneks couldn’t be reached Monday.

Thomas Panek, the former president and CEO of Minuti-Ogle, sold the company in 2014 to Florida-based KHS&S Contractors for an undisclosed sum. Property records indicate the Paneks bought the Oakdale site for $183,000 in 1996 and built the building a year later. The site is located just north of Interstate 94 and west of Interstate 694.

Minuti-Ogle offers a range of interior and exterior construction services, including metal stud framing, drywall installation and finishing, stucco and plaster, according to company information. Its website indicates it is continuing its operations in the same location.

Last sale: Seller bought the land in 1996 for $183,000

Property ID: 32-029-21-23-0006/0007

Date of deed: 12-21-15

ECRV released: 12-23-15