business

Developers planning a $60 million redevelopment of the "Dinkydome" recently completed their purchase of the landmark building near the University of Minnesota and are about to begin work.

Bloomington-based Doran Development paid $9.8 million for the building at 1501 University Av. and adjacent property extending back along 15th Avenue to 4th Street.

Doran plans to renovate the Dinkydome, built more than 90 years ago as the home of Minnesota Bible College, now called Crossroads College of Rochester. For about 40 years, the Dinkydome has housed a collection of small offices, shops and restaurants, most of which will remain after the renovation is complete. A Caribou Coffee and Erberts and Gerberts sandwich shop on the adjacent parcel will be demolished but moved to the new development.

A 198-unit apartment building will be added to the back of the Dinkydome. Construction should be completed by the middle of 2010, Doran said. The project also includes street-level and three levels of underground parking.

Doran said the project, proposed late last year, has taken longer than expected to get off the ground. In June the Minneapolis Planning Commission denied Doran's request to rezone and grant variances at the site, saying the addition was too tall, took up too much space and conflicted with the Dinkytown neighborhood.

Doran appealed, and in July the city's zoning and planning committee approved revised plans with increased setbacks. The addition's 135-foot height was not changed.

Marquette Plaza, a downtown Minneapolis office building constructed as the home of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, has been put up for sale.

The 522,000-square-foot building at 250 Marquette Av. already has generated considerable interest, with inquiries from more than 70 potential buyers, according to Mark Kolsrud, senior vice president of investment services at the Twin Cities office of Colliers Turley Martin Tucker. Colliers is co-listing the property along with a sister company, Cassidy & Pinkard Colliers of Baltimore.

Kolsrud attributed the high level of interest to the building's roster of blue-chip tenants signed to long-term leases. They include Xcel Energy, several federal government agencies and Meet Minneapolis, the city's convention and visitors bureau.

The building was a unique addition to downtown when it was built in the 1970s because of its suspension-bridge design, with floors supported by sets of cables.

The Federal Reserve vacated it when it built a new headquarters a few blocks away in 1997. Minneapolis-based FRM Associates bought the building that year and subsequently spent about $65 million renovating and expanding the property.

Two Minneapolis firms are in the running to oversee a proposed reconstruction of the Metrodome that, among other things, would serve as a stadium for the Minnesota Vikings. There is still no funding for the project.

Kraus-Anderson has teamed with Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Hunt Construction Group and New York-based Turner Construction in submitting its bid. Mortenson Construction has submitted a bid of its own.

Susan Feyder • 612-673-1723