Nonprofit Be The Match has moved into its new sun-drenched office building, bringing more daytime foot traffic to the northwest corner of downtown Minneapolis that's better known for its condos and apartments than offices.
The last wave of the organization's 955 employees arrived Monday, finding their desks in the 285,000-square-foot complex. The move comes just one week after the building's developer, Bloomington-based United Properties, sold the structure for $68.2 million to State Farm Insurance, based in Bloomington, Ill.
United Properties is the real estate arm of the Pohlad Companies, which also owns the Minnesota Twins that plays across the street. The building was estimated to cost $60 million, but was pre-sold to State Farm, coming in under budget, said Rick McKelvey, the project's lead and vice president of development at United Properties (seen in the photos above).
Be The Match, which promotes bone marrow and umbilical-cord blood transplants, has a 15-year lease on the property.
RSP Architects designed the building and Perkins + Will designed the interiors. It was built to hold up to 1,200 employees.
The building has 85 underground parking stalls available to executives and a few carpool vehicles. The nonprofit hopes close proximity to Target Field Station -- which is across the street -- encourages employees to use transit.
While built for an office user, the building, located at 524 5th St. N. in the growing North Loop neighborhood, has some features that cater to the public. There's a large conference center and pre-event space on the first floor (that already has been booked for its first wedding) as well as a public coffee bar and cafe, called 5th Street Station.
And if offices aren't your thing, the City of Minneapolis required United Properties include a public art component in the project. The firm hired Colorado-based artist Jen Lewin who created a 36-string "Sidewalk Harp" using lasers that can be played by people passing by. (McKelvey is demonstrating how to play it in the last photo above.)
