UNFI lists 133-acre former Supervalu campus in Eden Prairie for sale

A large suburban office complex has been put on the market. United Natural Foods Inc. is selling its 133-acre Eden Prairie campus.

United Natural Foods' (NYSE: UNFI), which had around 900 staff working from the campus before the pandemic began, has retained most of them. UNFI plans to open a regional office in the metro area within the next 12-18 months.

UNFI, a Providence, R.I. based company, said that as part of its vision for its current and future needs, it plans to establish a smaller regional office in Twin Cities. This will allow the organization to continue to offer strong customer service, improve productivity, and save money by reducing its office footprint.

UNFI anticipates that the new regional office will be a modern building that serves as a base of operations for its employees who live or travel to Minnesota. According to the statement, it is likely that this space will be used to host meetings between retailers and their suppliers.

The Eden Prairie campus was built in 1979 at 11840 and 12902 Valley View Road. It was used as the headquarters for Supervalu Inc. until UNFI purchased it in 2018 along with the remainder of Supervalu.

A three-story office building of 165,000 square feet is located close to the water. The property wraps itself around the southern part of Bryant Lake. On-site, there are more than 740 parking stalls, a data centre and pedestrian trails.

Hennepin County estimates that the combined value of property in Hennepin County is more than $19 Million, as per 2023 estimates.

Supervalu attempted to sell the property during its stay on the campus and hired CBRE for marketing. CBRE marketed the property as a mixed-use site, but no sale ever occurred.

CBRE's David Marschinke, Brian Pankratz and Brian Pankratz are the listing agents.

Marschinke described it as 'the most unusual property I have ever seen in my professional career.' He said that the land is large and located on a lake.

He said that now the property is for sale, it is possible to redevelop the campus. Buyers can present a variety of options for development. Marschinke stated that this could include a multifamily project, or even a new health care or office campus.

He said, 'I believe there will be a great deal of interest.'

He said that the existing office building can be reused for another office tenant or even converted into a multifamily home.

Eden Prairie Local News, a nonprofit media outlet, was the first to report on this listing. The organization reported that the city of Eden Prairie was looking for tenants to fill 100,000 sq. ft. in a building owned by it, which had been leased most recently by UNFI and Eden Prairie Schools.

UNFI said in a statement that there is no timetable for the sale. It's just one of many large corporate campuses in the metro area, including Wells Fargo South Minneapolis Home Mortgage Campus and UnitedHealth Group Inc. headquarters building in Minnetonka.

In January Thomson Reuters began to market a part of the large Eagan Campus for sale or leasing. The Toronto-based firm also announced that it was looking for new office space in the area.

Marschinke, a real estate agent, said that the UNFI listing was unlike any other on the market. '133 acres of land on a lake are different than a corporate setting in two interchanges,' he explained.