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106 Broadway Av. S., Wayzata
Type: Office
Size: 5,190 square feet
Buyer: 106 Broadway Wayzata LLC
Seller: Danske Investments LLC
Sale price: $1.45 million
Details: An unusual office property for sale in downtown Wayzata has found a well-known buyer: Florida watch company president and television pitchman Eyal Lalo.
This is a two-story, two-unit Class A office building that comfortably fits the "boutique" designation. Built in 2006 from designs by luxury home designer Keith Waters, its developer -- high-end residential real estate broker Robert Hare -- said for many years the parcel held a building that served as a general store and a survey office, among other uses.
"I had originally considered refurbishing the old building, because it's such a great location," said Hare. "But I didn't do my homework. After meeting with the architect, I knew I'd never be happy with remodeling it and decided to start from scratch."
The result was an upscale boutique office property that boasts a brick exterior, custom doors and cherry millwork, as well as plenty of slate and granite and expensive fixtures. Hare, a broker for Coldwell Banker Burnet's Wayzata office, built it as the headquarters of an independent brokerage he had established but put it on the market when he rejoined Burnet this year.
At one time listed at $2.2 million, the sale was eventually made this summer for $1.45 million to an entity controlled by Lalo, a third-generation Swiss watchmaker and CEO of Hollywood, Fla.-based Invicta Watch Group. Lalo is a familiar figure to viewers of ShopNBC, the cable television network based in Eden Prairie. On the air, Lalo regularly pitches his line of luxury watches and chats with watch collectors from around the country.
The leasing is being handled by Burnet's Bill Wolfson. He said he is in negotiations with a prospective tenant for the building's second floor. He said the prospective tenant is a well-known Wayzata business. Wolfson said Lalo added the building to a commercial real estate investment portfolio that already included a similar boutique building elsewhere in the western Twin Cities suburbs.
DON JACOBSON
Don Jacobson, a freelance journalist based in St. Paul, can be contacted at hotproperty.startribune@gmail.com.
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