Just Sold: Sauk Rapids company finds room to grow.

Byline: Anne Bretts

Editor's note: "Just Sold" is a Finance & Commerce feature based on certificates of real estate value recently filed for commercial transactions and significant residential transactions in Twin Cities counties. Additional details in the transactions come from Plat Research, the Minnesota Secretary of State's Office, company documents, online real estate listings, F&C archives, CoStar and other research. Some purchase prices and per-unit calculations have been rounded. Full prices are available on the CRVs posted here.

Finding large manufacturing properties for growing companies in rural areas can be a challenge. Selling unneeded ones in those areas can be just as challenging.

Developer and real estate investor Douglas J. Boser, CEO of St. Cloud-based Inventure Properties, is playing matchmaker for two such companies. An Inventure entity has paid a St. Cloud printing and digital services company $4.25 million for a vacant 122,880-square-foot manufacturing plant at 1600 13th Ave. N. in Sauk Rapids.

Boser plans to invest about $1 million to build out the space for a Sauk Rapids manufacturing company that has outgrown its space nearby.

SRI 13th Ave LLC, an Inventure entity, closed Oct. 26 on the acquisition from MLDT LLC, an entity related to Nahan, a family-owned printing and digital services company with 450 employees at its St. Cloud plant and a global roster of clients. Changes in the printing industry allowed Nahan to consolidate its operations in St. Cloud, Boser said.

The new tenant will be Pinnacle Climate Technologies Inc., a maker of industrial heating, cooling and ventilation equipment. The company was formed in 2015 when Pinnacle Products International acquired Schaefer Ventilation Equipment.

The price works out to $34.59 per square foot.

The move will give the company about 40,000 square feet more than it currently leases, Boser said.

"There are going to be some substantial upgrades to the building," said Boser. Work will include installation of manufacturing equipment and creation of a machine testing lab.

The building, which was completed in 2001, includes 61,440 square feet of warehouse space, 43,840-square-feet of manufacturing space and 17,600 square feet of office space. The building sits on 19.84 acres of land, with room for up to 120,000 square feet of additional space. The site includes 6 acres for future development for other clients.

This is the biggest redevelopment project so far for Inventure...