St. Paul Sears sells again for the second time in one month; buyer is local multimedia arts group
St. Paul’s long-vacant Sears store has traded hands again, the second time in one month.
Almost immediately after buying the 425 Rice St. property near the Capitol for $7 million in early May, a limited liability company called Pacifica St. Paul sold it to Asian Media Access, Inc. for $8.2 million at the end of May, according to a public filing with the Minnesota Department of Revenue.
Asian Media Access, the new owner, is a Minneapolis-based “community advocacy agency … dedicated to using multimedia arts and technology as tools for social betterment,” according to its website. The group’s community development director, Ange Hwang, declined to comment.
Local broker turned investor Marshall Nguyen told the Business Journal on Friday that Asian Media Access was involved in the project that Pacifica St. Paul was planning at the Sears site and asked if it could take over the project on its own. Nguyen and his partners in Pacifica St. Paul, including Windfall Group CEO Eddie Ni, ultimately decided to sell the property to Asian Media Access.
Nguyen said he and Ni are busy with other projects in Minnesota and in other states. Right now, their priority is Burnsville Center, where they’re redeveloping a former Gordmans store into an Asian supermarket and dining destination.
Seritage Growth Properties previously owned the vacant Sears store in St. Paul, which closed in early 2019, and listed it for sale in December, along with two other vacant Sears stores, in Burnsville and Maplewood. No sales have been recorded for the other two stores, but the Sears at Burnsville Center recently was declared a hazardous structure.
Ref: https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2023/06/02/st-paul-sears-sale-asian-media-access.html
