MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2008

Opus Northwest changes St. Paul development plans

by Jim Brubaker
Minneapolis-St. Paul

Opus Northwest has changed its plans for the six-acre Kellog Boulevard riverfront property in downtown St. Paul, Minn. The original plan was for a $200 million office, hotel and housing project but Opus will now instead relinquish their exclusive rights to market the property and won't develop the property.

The property, currently home to the former West Publishing building and approximately 600 county workers in the out of use Ramsey County Jail, will still be marketed by Opus, who scrapped their development plans after failing to find a suitable anchor tenant.

For Opus to retain the exclusive rights to market the property, it would be required to pay $900,000 as part of their purchasing agreement. Opus is expected to decline the exclusive rights.

A 22-story office tower featuring 500,000 square feet of space and a 32-story tower with a 250 room hotel and 100 condos were part of Opus' planned development, which would have given St. Paul its first new office tower in almost a decade as well as increased the city's Class A office space.

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