A ‘live, work, play’ vision in Edina

Listen to this article

For the better part the last decade, the owners of the Southdale Office Centre in Edina have been waiting for the right time to move forward with a major makeover plan for the 23-acre commercial site along France Avenue.

That time is now, said representatives with Edina-based Wildamere Properties, whose founder and CEO Dennis Doyle has co-owned the site through various business entities since 2002.

On Wednesday, Wildamere submitted preliminary plans to the city for its $100 million redevelopment of the site, which it is calling Promenade on France. The city’s planning commission is tentatively scheduled to review a sketch plan for the project Aug. 24, said Lisa Schaefer, assistant city administrator.

The Southdale Office Centre is less than a half-mile south of Highway 62 and features a complex of Class B office buildings, surface parking and retail originally built in the early 1970s. The site totals nearly 450,000 square feet of commercial space. It’s across the street to the west of Southdale Center regional mall.

Wildamere’s Promenade on France project would raze two existing office buildings, which total about 75,000 square feet of existing office space. The two largest office buildings at 6600 and 6800 France Ave., along with the existing, freestanding Tavern on France restaurant, will remain.

The developer then plans to construct — in multiple phases over the next five to seven years — a 155,000-square-foot medical office building, two retail buildings totaling 35,000 square feet, a residential tower and either a 125-room hotel or a 105,000-square-foot office building, depending on market conditions, said Ted Jokerst, president of Wildamere.

The redevelopment will eliminate much of the surface parking on the site, add underground parking to support the new uses, and make major pedestrian-friendly upgrades, he added. Wildamere has selected Minneapolis-based DJR Architecture for the design.

“About 20 to 30 years ago when a development like this was designed, you would have office or retail as far back from the street as you could get it,” Jokerst said. “That’s all changed, and that’s what we’re trying to get rid of with this project. We’re going to make this a greener, more pedestrian-friendly site. With more mixed use and more options for the residents of Edina.”

The project has surfaced at a time when the city-formed Southdale France Avenue working group — composed of area residents, planning commission members and various business and property owners — has been working to lay a foundation for what’s become a hot redevelopment market around the Southdale area of Edina, said Kevin Staunton, a member of the Edina City Council.

“In fairness to the development community, we want them to know what target they are shooting at when they come forward with redevelopment projects for this part of town,” Staunton said. “That’s the goal of the working group, to give a more clear vision of how these projects can strike a balance between their mass and scale and the desire for interconnectivity across these sites.”

Earlier this year Wildamere received approval to construct a new Bank of America branch on the south end of the site. Jokerst said that project will break ground this fall and the bank will open in February as the other retail portions of the development begin to take shape.

Originally built in 1971, Southdale Office Centre has been well-maintained over the years, and it underwent a $1 million renovation to its common areas in 2012. But the complex is due for a revamp at a time when the Southdale area has become a hot submarket for commercial redevelopment, said Jim Vos, principal at Cresa Minneapolis.

“I think it’s a great location for mixed-use redevelopment, because it has great access to both [Interstate] 494 and the Crosstown [Highway 62],” Vos said. “We’ve been seeing so many people looking for that ‘live, work, play’ combo and you can see that’s what is starting to take shape around Southdale.”

In February, a Wildamere-related entity partnered with Olympus Ventures LLC to buy the property for $55 million. The commercial site was previously owned by a joint venture entity that involved Wildamere founder Doyle and GE Capital. Wildamere and Olympus Ventures bought out GE Capital’s stake in the property about a year after GE Capital announced it would sell off nearly all its real estate assets.

RELATED CONTENT:

• Wildamere becomes sole owner of Southdale Office Centre
• Southdale Office Centre sold in one of year’s biggest deals