Developer buys Washington Square office building in downtown Minneapolis with plans to convert it

A distinctive downtown Minneapolis office building that anchors the north end of Nicollet Mall sold this month to a local developer with plans to repurpose it.

The property at 20 Washington Av. S., recognizable for its white-columned portico and verde-antique-paneled exterior, opened in 1965 as the Northwestern National Life Building. It’s the work of renowned architect Minoru Yamasaki, who also designed the World Trade Center’s twin towers in New York City.

Chad Tepley, founder and president of Minneapolis-based CDT Realty, announced his firm’s purchase of the building Friday. He declined to say how the property will be reused as his team continues to explore options. People familiar with the deal said the building is being eyed as a potential hotel.

“It’s really critical that we develop it in a way that includes the public and brings people — hopefully it’s visitors from out of state, out of the country — to the local community to finally enjoy pieces of this building in a different way," Tepley said. “The profile of the building, the history of it and certainly what I believed it can be transformed into are just thrilling.”

Such a project could incorporate several city boosters’ downtown revitalization strategies and ambitions. Converting the property — which has been vacant since Voya Financial moved across the street to the Marq in 2023 — would reduce downtown Minneapolis’ glut of vacant office space by 182,000 square feet. It would also bring more around-the-clock foot traffic to the key intersection of Washington and Hennepin avenues and Nicollet Mall.

“It really is a bit of a crossroads for downtown,” said Adam Duininck, president and chief executive of the Minneapolis Downtown Council. “I’m excited about their vision for the property, which is a very cool use for the space and a very proactive interest in how it connects with the other downtown neighborhoods and other planned developments for the riverfront.”

Tepley did not disclose the price of the property, though he did note declining office values are a major reason why today’s buyers are able to pursue costly conversion projects. The building’s estimated value was $4 million in the city’s most recent assessments.

“Selfishly, I didn’t trust it in the hands of anybody else,” he said.

Telling the story of the site is also a goal of Tepley’s. The development, located near the site of Minneapolis’ first city hall, was intended to be the centerpiece of the Gateway District, where 17 square blocks of aging structures were leveled in the early 1960s to make way for a more modern downtown.

Yamasaki’s design was “a gleaming example of the modern aesthetic that had emerged in the postwar era,” according to an article from the American Institute of Architects Minnesota. The site’s reflecting pools, landscaping and sculpture garden all help fulfill the architect’s charge to deliver “a monument within a park.”

The building last sold in 2014 to San Francisco-based Shorenstein, which paid $103 million for the entire Washington Square complex, which includes two other office properties, and a nearby parking ramp. The 22-story building next door, 100 Washington Av. S., was also designed by Yamasaki and is connected by an underground tunnel.

Last month, Shorenstein sold the rest of the properties to Pioneer Acquisitions, a New York real estate investment firm.

Closing the deal took 10 months, a process made challenging by economic headwinds and investor concerns about Minneapolis’ reputation, said Tepley, who was born and raised in the town of Byron, west of Rochester.

Tepley launched his real estate career in Chicago but moved back to Minnesota a few years ago to be closer to family. CDT Realty has since completed two projects in northeast Minneapolis: a warehouse-to-office conversion dubbed Burlap Lofts and a 49-unit apartment complex called 1000 Main Street.

The firm does not plan to seek local financial assistance for the 20 Washington conversion, Tepley said.