Meritex Announces Property Deals in Roseville

Meritex said it has closed on the sale of three development parcels totaling 20.52 acres at the Highcrest Business Park in Roseville. Terms were not disclosed.

In a press statement, Minneapolis-based Meritex said its closed last week on the sale of about eight acres to Setzer Properties RVE LLC. Kentucky-based developer Setzer Properties was chosen by FedEx to develop a 120,000 square foot office/warehouse for its ground shipping operations. Construction is scheduled to start immediately.

Earlier this month, Meritex closed on the sale of about six and half acres to DMO Property Holdings MN LLC, the company said. DMO plans to develop a new 60,000 square foot office/warehouse building for CertiFit, an auto parts retailer based in Salt Lake City. CertiFit will be relocating from its current location in Vadnais Heights. Construction is scheduled to begin next spring.

In June, Meritex sold six acres acres of vacant land to Airgas North Central, Inc. which is finalizing the construction of a new 18,000 square foot office/warehouse building, the company said. Pennsylvania-based Airgas is a distributor of  industrial, medical and specialty gases and related goods. Airgas is expected to take occupancy before the end of 2011, Meritex said. .

In 2010, Meritex prepared the site for development and/or land sales by razing Highcrest Park, a 700,000 square foot, two-building facility it had owned since the early 1960’s.  The business park is generally south of Terminal Road, west of Interstate 35 W and east of the Francis A. Gross Golf Course.

Daniel Williams, Meritex chief investment officer, said in a statement, “We have been very encouraged with the volume and terms of the Highcrest land transactions that have closed this year. The site has proven extremely desirable to distributors due to its central location and excellent access.”

Meritex said it has has two remaining parcels of land, one about nine acres and the other one 13.2 acres available for sale or build-to-suit. The 13.2 acre site overlooks the Francis A. Gross Golf Course and the 8.9 acre site is served by the Minnesota Commercial Railway.

Meritex is a private real estate investment and management company that buys, develops, owns and operates commercial real estate, primarily institutional grade and multi-tenant industrial properties. It owns, leases, and manages 8.6 million square feet of commercial real estate in seven U.S. markets including Atlanta, Indianapolis and the Twin Cities. Additional information is available at the company’s website http://www.meritex.com.