Minneapolis, Edina and the surround suburbs Real Estate Blog

  Last week was quite busy in the Minneapolis Condo market-two very large purchases were made.  One in multiple offers at the Washburn Lofts in the MIll District and the other at Phoenix on the River.   

  Washburn Lofts was part of the Washburn-Crosby Mills from long ago that was turned to lofts in the early 2000s before the Minneapolis Condo boom took hold of the area--the Mill District was still coming together as a neighborhood from a previous life as a heavy industrial area.  The extremely well appointed, multi million dollar unit under contract in the building is on the top floor which includes an outdoor terrrace that measures roughly 3200 square feet.  The lot has fantastic downtown and riverviews of the city making it a rarity in the upper bracket market.   An interesting phenomena occured on the listing that happens more often than not in the market: multiple offers after the listing had been in the market for well over a year.  It is commonly thought by buyers that the longer the listing is on the market, offer activity begins to diminish at an exponential rate.  Ironically a few offers emerged after this listing had been on the market for well over 450+ days. 

  Local entreprenuer Horst Rechelbacher was one of the buyers who lost in multiple offers to Washburn.  Horst was a pioneer puting Aveda together and later selling it and is now working on the accent of Inteligent Nutrients to the world stage.  Horst knows Minneapolis well as the Aveda flagship school+store in Northeast is merely blocks from the Phoenix on the River.  The Phoenix is a smaller, more intimate high rise consisting of 80 units on 18 floors-till last week when Horst purchased all 4 top floor units combining them for a total of just under $7 million and totaling well over 18,000 feet.  At first glance this looks like an attractive deal price per square foot as the units are vanilla shell spaces waiting to be built out by the new owner.  With build out, costs factored into the equation the total cost for the largest, most expensive condo in Minneapolis will run somewhere between $10M to $15M.  The Star Tribune broke the news this morning.  Some of the most expensive units in the Minneapolis Condo market are not for sale anymore.  As inventory continues to diminish year over year in the market 2012 will see less Sellers and more Buyers coming to the table.