Listen to this articleThe Blueprint
- Outside investors like Taurus, EQT and PGIM drove major Twin Cities industrial deals.
- The $92M BAE Systems warehouse in Maple Grove led the market by price per square foot.
- Amazon-occupied facilities in Shakopee and Brooklyn Park anchored large transactions.
- Local firms including Endeavor Development and Capital Partners remained active buyers.
A handful of trends were evident in the Twin Cities metro industrial market, chief among them was interest from outside investors.
Players like Taurus Investment Holdings made major investments in their Twin Cities portfolio, while firms like EQT Real Estate (formerly EQT Exeter) continued to steadily increase their presence after making headlines for their record-breaking portfolio purchase last year.
This isn’t to say smaller or local firms weren’t at play. Capital Partners saw a major sale early in the year with its Midway Mile portfolio and purchase in Brooklyn Park for $32 million.
Among the local players, it’s hard to argue anyone is having a better year than Josh Budish and Endeavor Development. The firm’s partnership with Artemis yielded one of the largest overall deals of the year and it has a number of projects that either saw municipal approval or began moving dirt.
Below are a look at some of the largest industrial sales to happen in the past 12 months, as reported on by Finance & Commerce.
Location: Maple Grove
Purchase Price: $92 million
Size: 247,000 square feet
Price per square foot: $373
Month of sale: December
Buyer: LCN Capital Partners
Seller: Opus
Description: It’s fitting that the two of the most expensive commercial assets of the year are neighbors. This property was finished in August, open in September and sold by December and it sits right next to the Boston Scientific building that sold earlier in the month. Its price per square foot is unrivaled, going back the past two years, and is double the next highest sale. No doubt, much of the value of the property is driven by its occupant, the aerospace and defense company BAE Systems.
Location: Shakopee
Purchase Price: $99.5 million
Size: 840,000 square feet
Price per square foot: $118.45
Month of sale: April
Buyer: PGIM Real Estate
Seller: MetLife Investment Management
Description: Despite being the highest overall price for an industrial property in the market this year, this Ryan Cos.-built warehouse was sold at a discount from its last price. MetLife bought in April 2020, when pandemic shutdowns made the future of online retail distribution look more lucrative than ever. MetLife purchased the property for $118.7 million.
Location: Champlin, Eagan and Plymouth
Purchase Price: $92.1 million
Size: Six properties; 762,253 square feet
Price per square foot: $120.82
Month of sale: June
Buyer: Endeavor Development, Artemis Real Estate Partners
Seller: Link Logistics
Description: The most expensive site within this acquisition was a Champlin site which went for $29 million. JLL’s Colin Ryan said that the leases on the site will come due within the next four to five years and are currently at below-market rents, making the property ripe for returns. Endeavor will manage the properties, per Josh Budish, who called the sale a simple “business plan” execution.
Address: 16 buildings throughout the metro, including Roseville, Shoreview and White Bear Lake
Purchase Price: $75 million
Size: 636,000 square feet
Price per square foot: $118
Month of sale: January
Buyer: Taurus Investment Holdings
Seller: Onward Investors
Description: Onward let go of its 16 distribution centers in a deal arranged by CBRE’s Judd Welliver and Bentley Smith. Most of the properties are small-bay sites that Smith called difficult to reproduce. The properties are 96% occupied and are “last-mile” centers with most of the leases taking up 10,000 square feet or less.
Location: Minneapolis
Purchase Price: $53.8 million
Size: 599,778 square feet
Price per square foot: $90
Month of sale: August
Buyer: Broadstone
Seller: Alcat Industrial, which shares an address with J.J. Taylor Cos.
Description: This is one of the bigger single-property warehouses that traded this year. The site has a prime location being near both Highway 280 and Interstate 35W, close to Roseville and St. Paul. It is also fairly new and serves as a hub for beverage distributors in the metro, once serving as a warehouse for J.J. Taylor Cos. and now Breakthru Beverage.
NorthPark Business Center warehouses
Location: Brooklyn Park
Purchase Price: $63.5 million
Size: Three buildings; 428,016 square feet
Price per square foot: $148.36
Month of sale: September
Buyer: BuzzOats
Seller: Scannell
Description: CBRE’s Judd Welliver described these properties as “super functional” and said the properties are representative of the diverse industry present in the Twin Cities. It is one of the larger deals in 2025, when accounting for price-per-square-foot, a testament to the product created and filled by Scannell. The site also reflects the sale of 610 Business Center Brooklyn Park in September, sold by Water Street Partners for a similar price point.
Location: Eagan, Maple Grove
Purchase Price: Two buildings; 357,120 square feet
Size: $52 million
Price per square foot: $145.6
Month of sale: May
Buyer: Exeter Real Estate
Seller: CBRE Investment Management LLC
Description: Exeter Real Estate seems to be continuing its work toward a “critical mass” presence in the metro. This property stands out because it further establishes their presence in Eagan, a rising powerhouse in the warehousing scene and in Maple Grove’s Arbor Lakes, the definitive micro-market in the area.
Brooklyn Park Amazon Sorting Center
Location: Brooklyn Park
Purchase Price: $35.1 million, per CRV
Size: 382,600 square feet
Price per square foot: $83.63
Month of sale: March
Buyer: Capital Partners
Seller: Brooklyn Park Paper LLC
Description: This property stands out partly because of its buyer, Capital Partners, an Edina firm that continues to be a power player for the industrial scene in the metro, and because of its assumed mortgage, one of the few industrial sales to have such a financing mechanism. It’s also notable for its single tenant, Amazon. Capital Partners’ Peter Mork said he is confident the site could be re-leased should Amazon vacate the site, though he is hopeful the e-commerce giant will renew its lease.
