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Hot property: Normandale Lake office building

Last update: July 6, 2009 - 2:58 PM

NORMANDALE LAKE OFFICE BUILDING & HOTEL

5501 W. American Blvd., Bloomington

Type: Office tower, hotel

Size: 255,000 square foot (office), 257 rooms (hotel)

Parking: 943-space ramp

Developer: United Properties

Details: The Bloomington Planning Commission has given its blessing to preliminary development plans for a pair of 10-story buildings at United Properties' Normandale Lake Office Park in Bloomington: the 8100 Tower office building and a 257-room Hampton Inn hotel to be built by the North Central Group of Middleton, Wis.

The buildings are planned for the northern half of the 6.2-acre former Jostens Inc. property along W. American Boulevard, just south of Interstate 494's interchange with Normandale Boulevard. The southern half of the parcel was developed by United Properties last year into the 8200 Tower, anchored by the London-based reinsurer Benfield Group, which opened this spring.

If it is built, the planned 8100 Tower would become the sixth tall office building at Normandale Lakes. United Properties vice president of development William Katter told the planning commission at its June 18 meeting that construction will have to wait until conditions improve in the Twin Cities office market. He said the hotel portion of the project would move first in any case -- its construction on the parcel's northeastern corner would be followed by the building of a 943-space parking ramp between the hotel and the 8100 Tower, which would be built last, he said.

Nate Gundrum, director of development for North Central Group Hotel Investors, told commission members his firm hopes to break ground on the Hampton Inn next year, but cautioned that the timing is dependent on the company being able to secure financing. He said a market study commissioned by United Properties indicated the I-494 hotel market had room for the kind of upscale, business-level rooms provided by the Hampton Inn brand.

Katter said Normandale Lakes has always needed a hotel as part of its campus, saying the plans for the Jostens site would give the park a facility that would be in character with its surroundings -- big and well-designed. The hotel's plans call for the use of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, principles. Its design features would include a masonry base of locally produced bricks below a stucco-covered cement board exterior.

The preliminary development plans will come before the Bloomington City Council July 20.

DON JACOBSON

Don Jacobson, a freelance writer based in St. Paul, can be contacted at hotproperty.startribune@gmail.com.

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