Cushman & Wakefield/NorthMarq recently represented the creditors of Diamond Products in securing the sale of the final 645,000 square feet of its 835,000-square-foot building in St. Paul, Minn., to the St. Paul Port Authority.
The St. Paul Port Authority has been looking at the site, located in St. Paul’s Lowertown district, for more than two years while the City of Saint Paul worked with the Saint Paul Saints to locate a regional ballpark facility on this portion of the Diamond Products site.
MetCouncil and MnDOT had previously acquired other portions of Diamond Products’ property by condemnation, and while the final price is not yet known, the total transaction value will be in excess of $7.5 million. The Saints ballpark project was awarded funding through the 2012 bonding bill announced last week by Gov. Mark Dayton.
The three-floor former manufacturing facility was the site of Diamond Products, a now dissolved manufacturer of such consumer products as White Rain hair spray and Dippity Do, products that it purchased in 2000 from Gillette, the original owner of the site built in the late 1960s.
Prior to the sale to the St. Paul Port Authority, Todd Hanson, C&W/NorthMarq senior director, worked with Met Council, which acquired the western portion of the building for train storage and a maintenance facility for the light-rail line between St. Paul and Minneapolis. Hanson also worked with the Minnesota Department of Transportation to acquire an eastern portion of the site for the expansion of Highway 52, the construction of the new Lafayette Bridge and a new interchange. Those two transactions totaled 190,000 square feet of the building.
“This was a once-in-a-lifetime project,” said Hanson. “We knew from the beginning it would be a challenging assignment; over the course of four years, we were able to overcome numerous hurdles and sell the property. But I don’t think any of us could have anticipated the scope or complexity of the final transaction, or the fact that the sale would eventually involve three different buyers.”
Hanson and his team of Jason Sell, director, and Chris Weirens, associate, secured the sale on behalf of Diamond Products creditors.
