Hamline Park Plaza being reinvented again

The office building and parking ramp at 570 Asbury St. has seen many changes in just 30 years.

by Tesha M. Christensen

Do you remember the Samaritan Hospital at 1515 Charles Place? Or  -- going further back -- the Northern Pacific Hospital?

The land the hospital and office building sat on has seen many changes over the years, and today it is being reinvented once again.

BUILT TO CARE FOR RAILROAD EMPLOYEES

The hospital was built as the Northern Pacific Hospital in 1919 at an estimated cost of $315,000. It was one of seven the Northern Pacific Beneficial Association created for the purpose of caring for railroad employees.

In 1968, part of the building was removed, and $1,000 put into a new front entrance and addition on the west side.

Three years late, the building became Samaritan Hospital.

An office building, originally known as Physicians Plaza, was constructed in 1984 along with the parking ramp, one of only a few in the area. It served as a medical office building for Samaritan Hospital. 

The hospital was purchased by Health East, and was closed in 1987 due to the age when the Midway Hospital was opened, pointed out Allison Klis of Simplified Management, who has managed the office building for the past 15 years. The hospital was demolished and new townhomes were constructed in cooperation with Common Bond. 

Physicians Plaza (now known as Hamline Park Plaza) at 570 Asbury St. was purchased in 1990 by Justin Properties, Inc., a real estate developer. The office building was updated and renovated to accommodate a general office use, rather than medical use. Hamline University School of Business’ administrative offices were in the building until early 2014.

During a recent foreclosure process, the property was placed under the care of Colliers International, a company that served as receiver prior to the new ownership.

Today, the office building and private park (which was once a sculpture park) is owned by a group of local individual investors, led by Todd Geller with Victory Capital. Several of the core investors were classmates in the University of Wisconsin real estate program, including Todd Geller and Eric Dueholm.

GREEN IMPROVEMENTS

According to Geller, there is a lot to be excited about Hamline Park Plaza.  

“The property is in great condition, and we have purchased it at a price point that will allow us to make some of the upgrades our current tenants have told us are important,” Geller stated.

These include an updated lobby, improved security and exterior lighting, as well as a larger conference facility available for use by the tenants.

Making green improvements is a priority for the owners. The most significant green improvement being done now is the lighting retrofit. “The new LED lighting will provide a much higher lighting level and will be substantially more energy efficient than the current lights,” noted Dueholm, Colliers Corporate Services Vice President who is LEED accredited and the leasing agent for the office building. He believes that the property would be an excellent candidate for LEED certification, and it is something they plan to investigate in the future.

LINK TO MEDICAL FIELD REMAINS

There are currently 17 office tenants in the 37,642-square-foot, 3-level office building, and many are linked to the medical field once again. “We have a number of therapists and chiropractors, as well as several non-profit groups,” said Dueholm. “It is a particularly good building for medical uses that do well in convenient, non-hospital campus locations (therapists, chiropractors, dentists, pain management, physical therapy, etc.)”

He added, “We have a vacant space at the entrance of the building that would be a great fit for a clinic group.” The building has about 10,000 square feet that is currently unoccupied.

There is a large parking ramp on site that offers more than enough parking for the office uses there. Parking is so ample, in fact, that several floors have been devoted to secure storage since 1994. Options include year-round or seasonal, heated and unheated, and underground or open air. More at www.hamlineparkstorage.com.

“It serves as a convenient location for local residents to store cars, especially during the winter when parking is tight,” said Klis. “We have customers that store collector cars. Some have been there since 1994.”

“Our biggest challenge is getting companies and individuals to know that we are located in the neighborhood,” said Geller. Because they are one block east of Snelling, he thinks that many people don’t know the property exists.

“We are excited to be taking on ownership of this property at a time when the mass transit situation in the neighborhood is blossoming,” stated Geller. “Not only are we 3 short blocks from the Snelling station of the Green Line, but we are only 1 block from Snelling, which will soon be the first Rapid Bus Transit corridor in the metro area.”

This story was published in the September edition of the St. Paul Monitor.