Building Blocks: The Nordic draws North Loop in – Finance and Commerce

Address:729 Washington Ave. N., Minneapolis

Web address: https://www.thenordicminneapolis.com/

Size: 10 stories, 200,000 square feet

Architect:Hartman Cox Architects, Washington, D.C., lead design architects. LHB Architects, Minneapolis office, architect of record.

General contractor: RJM Construction, Golden Valley

Owner/developer: Minneapolis-based United Properties and Greco

Property description:Since it opened in March 2019, The Nordic has become a bit more than just another brick-clad, loft-style creative office building.

United Properties developed the two-building property from the ground up as a mixed-use project that incorporated the historic feel office tenants like about Minneapolis North Loop neighborhood. But the project also includes outdoor recreation space, a food hall and a massive lobby meant to pull in both tenants and neighbors with a hip coffeehouse vibe.

The lobby was pretty important as a gathering area for people, said Chris Wold, a United Properties asset manager. And we really wanted to get the outside to look like it had been for here forever.

The food hall, operated by Galley Group, has also been a heavy draw, filling up with lunch and dinner diners from The Nordics offices and from nearby residents, Wold said. The food hall opened in December with food vendors selling Detroit-style pizza, Hawaiian food, Asian soul food and fried chicken.

Construction has wrapped on The Nordic, with the exception of a planned fitness facility and tenant improvements on about 2,000 square feet of retail space on the Third Street North side of the property. That space is part of The Nordics nine-story mixed-use parking ramp. The building contains more than 400 parking stalls, restaurant Thr3 Jackon the ground floor and 58 condominium units collectively named The Sable. The condos hide the parking behind them and seem to have been popular among buyers with 41 selling so far. Minneapolis-based Greco co-developed Sable with United Properties.

Between the two pieces of The Nordic is a courtyard that links them, as well as the Loose-Wiles building next door. A construction crew was at work this week installing an artificial ice surface that will be used for curling.

Tenant spaces are already bustling as vacancy in the building has dwindled to 10%. Digital marketing agencyOvative/group and co-working space provider WeWork lease the largest office spaces in the building. Ovatives 38,000 square feet of office space on the ninth and tenth floors and amenity space enclosed in a small, rooftop space are all linked with wide stairwells.

WeWork, which leases about 60,000 square feet between floors four, five, six and seven, is on its way to filling its rental office spaces, said WeWork Community Manger Amada Hart. Offices at this WeWork location, which is one of three in Minneapolis, accommodate companies starting with a single employee to one with nearly 70, she said.

Its still getting ramped up, Hart said in a Thursday interview.

West Monroe Partners will surpass Ovative as the buildings second-largest tenant when it moves into 42,000 square feet of space in May. When the space is complete it will be a light, bright space, Wold said, thanks to banks of huge windows and a massive atrium space that links the two floors of the companys future working space.

The Nordics 20,000-squre-foot eighth floor has yet to be leased. United Properties is building out a speculative suite in half of the space that will be fully furnished sometime in February. The developer hopes to lease the suite built out as is, and the raw space on the rest of the floor as something a tenant would have built out to its individual tastes.

Were looking for both, Wold said. There are a lot of companies that come and they dont even want to think about design.

United Properties is seeking WELL certification for The Nordic, Wold said. The designation denotes a building designed with the health and wellness of the occupants in mind.

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Building Blocks: The Nordic draws North Loop in - Finance and Commerce