The city of Brooklyn Center has paid $3.6 million for a shuttered Target store that the Minnesota-based retailer has had on the market for about a year.

The 117,595-square-foot store at 6100 Shingle Creek Parkway was one of six stores across the Target Corp. that closed last February. The store, which was built in 1986, had seen several years of declining sales, Target spokeswoman Erin Conroy told Finance & Commerce in October 2018.

The city’s Economic Development Authority purchased the building on Nov. 26, according to a certificate of real estate value made public last week. Target Corp. was the seller.

The deal for the store and 9-acre property works out to about $30.61 per square foot of space. Hennepin County valued the property at $5.56 million prior to the sale for tax purposes.

The city made a purchase offer for the store in July.

The city has included the Target store in an 81-acre zone that is considered to be underdeveloped, according to Finance & Commerce archives. The building is in the southwest quadrant of Interstate 694 and Highway 100, an area that includes a former Sears store that closed in early 2018 at 1297 Shingle Creek Drive. The Sears is a remnant of the former Brookdale Center regional mall that was redeveloped into Shingle Creek Crossing.

The city decided to buy the Target property to make sure it is redeveloped in a way that is consistent with the rest of the redevelopment zone around it, said city Community Development Director Meg Beekman in a July 22 memo.

“As the master planning has progressed, it has become clear that the strategic acquisition of the former Target site would be advantageous to the future plans for the City and would position the area in the best possible way,” Beekman wrote. “Further, the City’s acquisition of the site would ensure that the property is not reused in a manner that would be detrimental to the City’s future plans.”

City officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the purchase. The store’s closure was unexpected, Beekman told Finance & Commerce last year.

The city has significant holdings around the Target store totaling about 35 acres of redevelopment land. Minneapolis-based developer Alatus LLC has agreed to purchase and redevelop the property as housing.