A historic two-tower apartment building at Marquette Avenue and Fifth Street is on the market as an investment property.

Previously an office building, the Soo Line Building last sold for $11.25 million in 2011, underwent a more than $30 million renovation, and then reopened as an apartment building with 254 units in 2013. That's well before commercial-to-residential conversions became all the rage in major cities across the country.

The recent listing for Soo Line, located at 101 Fifth St. S, does not include an asking price. Instead, a marketing brochure for the property says it “can be purchased for an approximately 50% discount to its replacement cost.”

Based on a 2023 assessment, the Soo Line’s estimated market value is almost $52.7 million, according to Hennepin County property records.

The Nic on Fifth, a neighboring luxury apartment building with 253 units, sold for $70 million in September. The estimated market value of that property is almost $84 million.

When the Nic on Fifth was completed in fall 2014, it was the first high-rise luxury apartment development in downtown Minneapolis in nearly 30 years, the Star Tribune reported.

A year later, developers completed another nearby luxury apartment building with 261 units, 4Marq, located at 400 Marquette Ave. It’s also currently on the market, with representation by the same CBRE brokers as Soo Line.

“Downtown Minneapolis is on the rebound with record absorption, dwindling supply, and attainable rent levels, which bodes well for future performance,” the Soo Line brochure says.

Like the Soo Line, the Nic on Fifth has a sizable ground-floor retail footprint that’s been vacant since 2020. Both were previously occupied by restaurants that shut down due to the pandemic and never reopened.

The marketing brochure for Soo Line says the building is 93% occupied, with units averaging 745 square feet.

Soo Line was designed by architect Robert W. Gisbon, who was best known for the Cartier Building in New York City’s Manhattan neighborhood. The 19-story building was the tallest in downtown Minneapolis from the time it was completed in 1915 until 1926, when the 26-story Rand Tower and the 32-story Foshay Tower were built. Both of those former office buildings were eventually converted into hotels.

Soo Line originally served as the headquarters for the First National Bank and the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad, commonly known as the Soo Line due to the phonetic spelling of Sault.

One of the CBRE brokers who’s now handling the Soo Line listing told the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal that the building is being marketed as a “value-add opportunity,” meaning the buyer would likely have to invest in renovations to the property.

Soo Line claims to have the central business district’s only rooftop pool and hot tub.