Artspace buys artist studios, aims to preserve affordability.

Byline: Matt M. Johnson

Artspace Properties plans to keep Minneapolis' single largest collection of artist studios affordable and potentially growing after paying $11 million for the Northrup King Building complex in northeast Minneapolis.

The Minneapolis developer of affordable housing and commercial real estate closed on the deal for the 14-building, 552,000-square-foot property at 1500 Jackson Street NE on Nov. 8, according to a certificate of real estate value made public on Tuesday. The nonprofit had negotiated the deal earlier this year with longtime owner Shamrock Properties. Northrup King was part of a portfolio Shamrock has been selling off since the death of its founder, Jim Stanton, in 2017.

More than 200 studios on the property are home to about 350 artists, said Greg Handberg, Artspace's senior vice president of properties. Shamrock has spent the past two decades rehabbing the property for that use, he said in a Thursday interview. About half of the space in the warehouse complex is in the main Northrup King building. More than 200,000 square feet of space in the complex is currently vacant.

The transaction works out to about $19.93 per square foot of space. Hennepin County values the complex at $12.89 million for tax purposes. The property last sold in 1986 for about $1.84 million.

Artspace's plans for the complex go beyond just maintaining the studios, Handberg said. A number of empty buildings on the property have redevelopment potential as live-work studios for artists and for other commercial uses. Artspace has engaged Minneapolis-based architecture firm Cuningham Group to start a conceptual design process, he said.

Until any of that work starts, the complex has a solid tenant base. The finished space on the property has no vacancies, according to CoStar.

"They made a ton of progress," Handberg said.

Debra Woodward, the complex's longtime manager and Stanton's daughter, did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment on the sale. However, in an Artspace press release...

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