Matt Van Slooten
President of CSM Corp.'s commercial properties division
Matt Van Slooten, a 25-year real estate veteran, has joined Minneapolis-based CSM Corp. as president of its commercial properties division. Van Slooten, 48, will oversee the day-to-day operations of the company's 9.3-million-square-foot portfolio of office, industrial and retail properties. CSM also has two speculative industrial projects underway totaling 470,000 square feet and plans for approximately 400,000 square feet of retail/mixed use development in Eagan (on the former Lockheed Martin site). Van Slooten, a northeast Minneapolis native, replaces Andy Deckas, who left in June after a brief stint.
Van Slooten most recently served as president of Minnetonka-based Carlson Real Estate Co., which he joined in 1989. He sees strong similarities between CSM and Carlson in that they are both privately-owned commercial real estate companies with a mix of properties. Gary Holmes is president and CEO of CSM — and also operates lodging and residential divisions — while Carlson is owned by the Carlson family, which also operates a travel and hospitality company. During the past couple of years, Carlson has sold off properties, reducing the size of its commercial real estate portfolio from 6.5 million square feet to 2.5 million square feet.
Q: What opportunities do you see at CSM?
A: I've watched CSM from the outside for really my entire career. I've always been impressed with the projects they've done, and CSM has had an ability to adapt in changing markets. I've built a career in the commercial real estate industry. I really love the industry, and CSM provided me the largest and best place in the Twin Cities for me to do what I love.
Q: What are your primary responsibilities?
A: Overseeing CSM's commercial line of business. That includes all aspects of running the portfolio and the development, and I'm working closely with Gary Holmes, the company's owner and founder. He's engaged in all of his holdings, so his time is shared between commercial, lodging, residential and other investments and activities. So the way I view my role is I'm providing the full-time, day-to-day guidance for the commercial team … I'm doing a lot of things that he'd like to be doing but won't fit into his calendar.
Q: What are some of your goals?
A: We do have more vacancy in the portfolio than we'd like to have, so leasing vacant space and continuing to take great care of existing tenants is really a top priority for us. The spec developments really are next — to have those run smoothly, be built on time and on budget, and have good leasing success. Then there will be lots of details surrounding the Eagan development and we want to see that gets kicked off in a strong fashion. We have a strong team in place.
Liz Wolf is an Eagan-based freelance writer. She can be reached at wolfliz99@aol.com.
