Uponor, the system solutions provider for plumbing, fire safety and radiant floor heating and cooling, recently received a Best in Real Estate award in the Industrial – Lease category from the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. The award recognizes Uponor’s new 285,000-square-foot North American distribution facility, located in Lakeville, Minn., a suburb south of the Twin Cities.

The building, which was completed and officially opened for business on March 23, 2009, is applying for LEED® Silver Certification. Its design, which was driven by Uponor, features many sustainable building solutions, including T5 warehouse lighting, drought-tolerant landscaping and preferred parking for carpool and fuel-efficient vehicles, as well as Uponor’s own radiant floor heating and cooling in the office areas, as well as snow and ice melting in the sidewalks and dock ramps outside.

“We believe this facility, a bulk distribution facility, will be the first such facility to be LEED-certified in the state of Minnesota,” says Ray Reese, senior vice president at CB Richard Ellis in Bloomington, Minn., the tenant broker for the building.

The build-to-suit facility is located in the new First Park Lakeville development, a 1.4-million-square-foot, master-planned industrial park, located near the corner of County Road 70 and Dodd Boulevard, approximately one mile east of I-35W.

“This building is specifically designed and located to provide several benefits for our operations,” says Dan Hughes, Uponor’s real estate and development manager. “It is more operationally efficient and offers our employees, customers and business partners convenient access from freeways, as well as our corporate headquarters in Apple Valley.”

According to Arvid Povilaitis, chief operating officer at Minneapolis-based Meritex Enterprises, Inc., and Best in Real Estate judge, one of the most intriguing aspects of the facility was the developer’s ability to execute a large transaction on a site near wetlands.

“They completed the building, respecting the wetlands and designed innovative runoff water management solutions to minimize impact on the natural habitat,” says Povilaitis. “Compared with the other entrants, this transaction was the largest and most compelling.”

Uponor Corporation is a leading supplier of plumbing, fire safety and radiant heating and cooling systems for the residential and commercial building markets across North America and Europe, and a market leader in municipal infrastructure pipe systems in the Nordic countries. Uponor Corporation employs 3,800 people in 27 countries and is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd., Finland.

Uponor, Inc. is headquartered in Apple Valley, Minn. For more information, visit www.uponor-usa.com or call (800) 321-4739.

Uponor Ltd. is based in Mississauga, Ont. For more information, visit www.uponor.ca or call (888) 994-7726.

For more information about Uponor, visit the Uponor media room at http://www.lnccommunications.com/uponor-media.html

For editorial assistance, contact John O’Reilly c/o LNC Communications LLC at (815) 469-9100; e-mail: [email protected]

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Uponor is a trademark of Uponor Corporation and Uponor, Inc. LEED is a registered trademark of the U.S. Green Building Council. National Green Building Standard is a trademark of the National Association of Home Builders.

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The new 285,000-square-foot facility in Lakeville, Minn., received the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal’s Best in Real Estate Award in the Industrial – Lease category. File Name: UP0928-Lakeville-DC-09-Front2.tif


Compared to the former distribution center, the new Lakeville facility features a more efficient design that offers 30% more cubic volume for greater storage space. File Name: UP0928-LakevilleDC_09_Conveyer.tif