Oppidan, Rockpoint to Develop Life Science, Industrial Sites for $157M
By Andrew Coen August 5, 2021 8:00 am
reprints
Oppidan Investment Co. and Rockpoint Group are forming a $157.3 million joint venture partnership to develop three life science and industrial projects, Commercial Observer has learned.
The two commercial real estate companies are planning nine buildings on three development sites totaling 1.55 million square feet in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., and Raleigh-Durham, N.C., markets. The Minnesota facilities will be geared toward industrial usage, while the North Carolina project will be designed for life sciences.
All of the buildings are scheduled for completion in 2022 and 2023.
JLL (JLL) Capital Markets represented Oppidan — a national property development firm headquartered in Minneapolis— in arranging the partnership with Boston-based Rockpoint Group. The transaction was led by JLL senior managing directors Colin Ryan, John Huguenard, David Berglund and Pete Pittroff, along with Patrick Nally, a managing director.
Leading the project for Oppidan are Blake Hastings, president; Jay Moore, senior vice president of development; and Tim Brent, executive vice president for the Southeast office.
“We are excited to embark on a programmatic relationship with Rockpoint and continue to grow the industrial and logistics vertical at Oppidan,” Hastings said in a statement. “Our cultures are very well aligned and we look forward to a long, deep relationship.”
The planned developments include the Chaska Creek Business Park, which will be located in the southern part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area in Chaska, Minn. The two-building bulk warehouse will be expandable for a variety of industrial operations.
Another project is Bunker Lake Industrial Park in Ramsey, Minn., which will consist of three buildings designed to accommodate different types of industrial operations within the region. No other active or looming industrial asset opportunities exist in the Ramsey area, according to JLL.
JLL’s second-quarter industrial outlook report released Tuesday showed that the Minneapolis-St. Paul market is facing a likely increase in asking rents for space until more supply is delivered.
The Raleigh-Durham project — Cash Corporate Life Sciences Center — will be a four-building, life sciences development constructed on a 121-acre site at 2100 Production Drive in Apex, N.C. It represents the largest developable industrial site in Apex, with proximity to a large talent pool from nearby University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, Duke University and North Carolina State University.
The recently released JLL Life Sciences Emerging Markets Index gave the Raleigh-Durham market high index scores for wages and potential, two of its key metrics for the sector.
Andrew Coen can be reached at acoean@commercialobserver.com.
