Minneapolis, Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS—(March 11, 2008)—The Minneapolis/St. Paul office of Colliers Turley Martin Tucker (Colliers), a world-wide leader of commercial real estate services, today announced that it has been awarded both the retail and office leasing assignments at the landmark Manufacturers Building, located at 401 First Avenue North in Minneapolis. Colliers also currently represents Manufacturers Building LLC in the pending sale of the 52,175-square foot building to Uppal Enterprises. The firm has been retained by Uppal Enterprises to lease the building.

The historic Manufacturers Building is situated on the highly visible corner of Fourth Street and First Avenue North in Minneapolis’ warehouse district, just one block from a light rail station and two blocks from the Twinsville development. Vik Uppal, president of Uppal Enterprises, looks forward to leveraging the visibility of the building and offering Minneapolis something “highly unique and edgy.” In fact, Uppal hopes to create a brand out of the Manufacturers Building.

“Our approach and attitude as it relates to this building, which we will rename 401 1st Avenue, are highly unique to Minneapolis and to boutique office buildings in general,” said Uppal. “Our approach is to market the building as a strong, hip, creative brand; and our result will be a building with an attitude of success.”

Colliers’ Retail Leasing team of Kelcey McKean, associate, and Andrea Christenson, SCLS, second vice president, and its downtown Office Brokerage team of Emily Whitaker Riddering, senior associate, and Dick Keller, senior vice president and principal, is working to attract the kinds of high-profile retail tenants that will create buzz and build intrigue as well as office tenants who will thrive in the distinctive and creative space.

“First Avenue has always been about drink first and food second. With Nami, 112 Eatery, Saffron and the repositioning of the Manufacturers Building, there is an opportunity to make First Avenue a destination for great dining,” said Christenson. “We anticipate incorporating a destination restaurant concept as well as a complementary pub into the nearly 7,000-square feet of first floor space in the building.”

McKean added that the timing for repositioning the building into an exclusive, swank retail destination couldn’t be better with the new Twins ballpark opening in 2010. “Its proximity to the soon-to-open Twinsville is just icing on the cake for this great location,” she said.

Emily Whitaker Riddering agrees. “Because of its prime Minneapolis location, 401 1st Avenue offers tenants an entire lifestlyle. This building is the boutique hotel of office space that is more like a club tenants belong to than merely rented office space. The building’s amenities and image will clearly support this differentiation.”

About Colliers Turley Martin Tucker

One of the nation’s largest privately held, full-service commercial real estate firms, Colliers Turley Martin Tucker (CTMT) handles more than $5 billion in annual real estate transactions and manages over 212 million square feet of industrial, office, and retail space. CTMT has approximately 1,200 associates of which 450 are licensed real estate professionals throughout its regional offices in Cincinnati, Columbus, and Dayton, OH; Indianapolis, IN; Kansas City, MO; Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN; Nashville, TN; and St. Louis MO. For more information about Colliers Turley Martin Tucker, visit our website at www.ctmt.com.

Contact Information

Jennifer Umberger
jumberger@ctmt.com

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