Finance & Commerce/William Morris
It’ll take more than one developer to build out 15 acres of land for sale around St. Paul’s Luther Seminary.
The school has chosen a team led by Minneapolis-based Master Properties to build a variety of housing options as it sells more than half its St. Anthony Park campus. Luther put the property, including the historic Bockman Hall and a number of buildings on the “lower campus” to the northwest, on the market in July as it transitions to an instructional model with more online and commuting classes.
Luther officials introduced the development team Thursday at a special meeting of the St. Anthony Park Community Council. In addition to serving as master developer, Master will be working with Edina-based Simek Realty on a market-rate housing project on the site, including a renovation of Bockman Hall. Minneapolis-based United Properties will develop a senior housing component, and St. Paul nonprofit CommonBond Communities is on board to develop affordable housing.
The consortium offered the best vision for the neighborhood Luther wants to create, said Tanya Bell, a partner at Grand Real Estate Advisors Group who is representing the seminary in the sale.
“Luther wanted a neighbor that would be dynamic and vibrant. They liked the idea of a wide diversity of neighbors,” Bell said in an interview. “From our perspective, it was a market-smart opportunity that can stay flexible and change if things change in the market.”
Master and its partners approached Luther as a consortium, said Ted Davis, a Master spokesman, with each seeing potential in the property offered for sale.
“It’s a unique site in a thriving neighborhood that has a need for more places for people to live,” Davis said in an interview. “Properties like this rarely become available, and … the location between the two cities in a very, very well-regarded neighborhood makes it very appealing.”
Bockman Hall, which is on the main campus quad, was built in 1900 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. In July, Luther Vice President Michael Morrow told Finance and Commerce the school hopes to continue housing some students visiting campus for short-term stays after the sale, and Davis said Master is open to that.
“The plan is to be available for students at Luther Seminary, and for other folks to be able to live in that building,” he said.
The lower campus property, which straddles St. Paul and Lauderdale, includes a 6.3-acre forested tract known as Breck Woods, and neighbors have been outspoken in their desire to see those woodlands preserved. It’s too soon to say whether any of Breck Woods will be developed, but the developers will be listening closely to the community, Bell said.
“It’s a development group that conveyed they’re accustomed to community engagement, and they’re looking forward to working with the community process,” she said.
The parties are still working on a final purchase agreement, which Bell hopes to have executed in four to six weeks. Development details, including height, unit counts, costs and other specifics, will be hammered down over the course of a community feedback process, with construction unlikely to start until 2020, Davis said. The Bockman renovation is one exception that could move forward sometime this year.
Luther initially listed Bockman for $2 million and the lower campus package for $11.9 million. Bell declined to confirm the final sale price agreed to by the parties, but said it was “in the range” of the original listing.
“We were pleased with how we priced it, and the market validated our general pricing,” she said.
Master and its partners are working with Cuningham Group Architecture in Minneapolis and landscape design consultant David Motzenbecker of Motz Studios, Davis said. In the coming months, once the purchase agreement is finalized, they’ll be reaching out further to the community to discuss their plans.
“There’s a lot of listening, there’s a lot of conversation about vision, but mostly it’s very early in the process,” he said.
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