Corporate History

Independent Ownership, Innovation and Strong Client Partnerships
Give United Properties its Long History

From Owner to Full-Service Firm: A 90-Year Evolution United Properties was founded as a real estate investment company in 1916 by the Hamm Family, owners of Minnesota’s famed Hamm’s Brewing Company. Originally headquartered in downtown St. Paul, the company managed and leased a range of assets in the family’s real estate portfolio, including the Hamm Building. Built in 1919 and located at 408 St. Peter Street, the building is a downtown St. Paul landmark. In 1998, the company was sold to the Pohlad family.

The Hamm Building

Owner Expertise Leads to Development Opportunities
By the early 1970s, United Properties had expanded its investor/owner focus to include development, and in the 1980s the company accelerated its office, industrial and retail development activities. During the past three decades, the company has developed numerous, high-profile office, industrial, retail and multi-family buildings and business parks for its owned portfolio and for third-party clients, primarily in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

An active build-to-suit development program helps United Properties cater to the specific real estate needs of corporate users, and the company has also developed multi-family housing projects in the Twin Cities suburbs. In the late 1990s, the company also began developing grocery-anchored neighborhood shopping centers across the Upper Midwest.

Real Estate Recession Leads to Real Estate Services
The late 1980s and early 1990s brought too much new construction to the market in the midst of declining demand from corporate real estate users. The result was soaring vacancy rates and depressed property values.

In the midst of a virtual industry collapse, United Properties’ management team began cultivating a new opportunity—third-party real estate services. The market downturn forced many big companies and private owners out of the business, either by severe downsizing or because of property foreclosure by financial institutions. United Properties saw this as an opportunity to begin focusing on servicing institutional clients and private owners.

The company put seven decades of knowledge as a real estate investor, owner and developer to work. From the mid ’80s to the mid ’90s, United Properties provided brokerage and leasing, property management, construction and other services to property owners and corporate users. By the time new construction returned in 1995, the company had built the largest brokerage and property management practice in the Twin Cities.

Riding the Top of the Real Estate Cycle
When the Twin Cities real estate market began picking up momentum the second half of the 1990s, United Properties had created two solid businesses—a large, third-party services business and its principal investment and development business—both being serviced by the industry’s top talent.

As real estate markets continued to improve, United Properties identified a growing trend among corporations outsourcing operations like real estate facilities and transaction management. This led United Properties to create its Corporate Real Estate Services division as a separate business focus in 1995.

Reorganization Creates Clear Value Proposition
Recognizing the need for a clear value proposition, United Properties reorganized its businesses in 2008 to create more distinction between the businesses that provide third-party services and the investment and development businesses. The services businesses of Property Management, Brokerage, Construction, Healthcare and Corporate Solutions operate under the NorthMarq name (www.northmarq.com), in recognition of the synergy with sister-company NorthMarq Capital, which has offered joint venture, debt and equity and investment services for more than 30 years. United Properties refocused its business on only investment and development.