Ryan buys four-building Woodlake Centre for $33M.

Byline: Matt M. Johnson

The sale of a mixed-use medical office complex in Richfield might be an indication that the market for medical space might be perking up after a slow 2018.

An entity related to Minneapolis-based Ryan Cos. US Inc. paid $32.967 million for the four-building Woodlake Centre at 6601-6625 Lyndale Ave. S. and 407 W. 66th St., according to a certificate of real estate value made public on March 14. The 190,714-square-foot multitenant complex is in the southeast quadrant of Interstate 35W and 66th Street West, and includes an attached parking structure with about 800 stalls, according to CoStar.

The buyer paid a premium over Woodlake Centre's last selling price. Seller Woodlake Partners LLC, which shares an address with Santa Monica-based Miramar Capital, paid $20.3 million for the property in 2014. Records on file with the Minnesota Secretary of State's office show that buying entity is managed by Los Angeles-based Laurus Corp.

The latest transaction, which closed on March 8, works out to $172.86 per square foot of space. Hennepin County values the property at $20.5 million for tax purposes.

The sale comes after "not a very deep year" for medical office building sales in the Twin Cities, with seven transactions closing in 2018, according to Cushman & Wakefield's most recent Compass report. However, investor demand for medical office property is high among a "smaller universe of buyers," said Mike Ohmes, a managing principal with Cushman & Wakefield's Twin Cities office.

"There's a very aggressive appetite for quality assets," he said in an interview earlier this year.

Scott Pollock, Terry Kingston, Tom O'Brien and Avery Ticer with the Twin Cities office of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller in the Woodlake Centre transaction. They declined on Monday to comment on the transaction.

Ryan Cos. also declined to comment on the purchase. Miramar did not respond to requests to comment, and Laurus Corp. could not be reached.

Tenants in the three office buildings include law firm Maser Amundson Boggio PA, Metro Dentalcare, Woodlake Family Orthodontics and DaVita Kidney Care. Restaurant and bar...