Business & Tech

After More Than a Year on the Market, Blue Cross Sells Waterview Tower

Blue Cross officials didn't disclose the sale price of the 98,000-square-foot building. The property was sold to Fleetpark LLC., which is owned by Wayne Hoovestol.

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An Eagan landmark—the 10-story Waterview Office Tower off Yankee Doodle Road in the city's Town Centre district—finally has a new owner.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota recently sold the building to  a buyer for its 10-story office tower in Eagan to Fleetpark LLC., according to Blue Cross spokesperson James McManus. Although the tower has been on the market since 2011, the sale closed at the end of 2012, McManus said.

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The 98,000-square-foot tower was built in 1985, but Blue Cross didn't purchase the building until 1992. At its peak, the building housed as many as 400 Blue Cross employees. The work at the tower was operational in nature, with different Blue Cross departments occupying the building at different times, McManus said.

But the building's distance from the rest of the Blue Cross campus, located along Hwy. 13 in western Eagan, made the location problematic from an efficiency and productivity standpoint, McManus said. Blue Cross transferred the last employees from the building in Sept., 2011.

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"Waterview really was the outlier, in that it was three miles away from the majority of our buildings in Eagan that make up the Eagan campus," McManus said.

Although the company did not disclose the purchase price of the building, the listing price for the property was $6.4 million, according to McManus.

Fleetpark LLC. is owned by Wayne Hoovestol, according a Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal report. Wayne Hoovestol is also the owner of Eagan-based Hoovestol Inc., trucking business founded in 1978.

The Hoovestols also own a number of commercial properties in Eagan—including the former Stock Lumber property—and other ventures across the country, according to Joe Hoovestol, Wayne Hoovestol's son.

The Hoovestols plan to lease the building to multiple tenants, and think the location is ideal for a mix of retail, banking insurance and legal clients, Joe Hoovestol said.

Joe Hoovestol is the operations manager for Open Space, LLC., the company responsible for leasing the building. A combination of visibility and favorable market prices enticed the Hoovestols to purchase the building late last year, Joe Hoovestol said.

"Eagan’s the first main city once you get out of St. Paul, and that building, it’s right next to [Interstates] 35E and 494, and also very visible," Joe Hoovestol added. "Even if you don’t work in Eagan, everyone knows that building."


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