2025 NAIOP Awards of Excellence Winner – FORCE America

Thursday, September 25th, 2025

Congratulations to FORCE America! Pope Design Group joined our colleagues and other commercial real estate industry members for the 42nd Annual NAIOP of Minnesota Awards of Excellence this week. 

The NAIOP of Minnesota Awards of Excellence is one of the most significant events of the year for the commercial real estate industry to honor the year’s top projects.  We are excited to share that FORCE America won the Repositioned / Renovated (Tenant Improvement / Industrial) category. 

FORCE America
Savage, Minnesota

FORCE America engineers, manufactures and distributes hydraulic systems and components to customers nationwide. Their new 80,000 SF headquarters consolidated three buildings, bringing together operations, distribution and engineering, streamlining processes and better connecting their workforce. As a 100% employee-owned company, staff input was crucial in the design decisions, and the project budget aligned employee wellbeing with cutting edge operational upgrades to improve customer service.

Coordinating all of FORCE America’s processes and replicating them with greater efficiency and ergonomics into a 20-year-old existing building was a challenge.  Because this was a tenant improvement project there was a significant amount of reconfiguration of plumbing, electrical and HVAC to accommodate FORCE America’s operations. The space was gutted and trenches were cut into the slab to reroute plumbing. 

Amenities include a maker’s space, fitness room, and large work café with garage door access to an outdoor patio, while customer service improvements include a separate will-call entrance and Modula vertical storage lift system. FORCE America’s new headquarters showcases the company’s brand, attracts and retains a talented workforce, adds capabilities to better serve customers, and ultimately accommodates the company’s impressive growth to meet business demands for decades to come. 

PROJECT TEAM 

  • Owner: FORCE America 
  • General Contractor: Gardner Builders 
  • Architect & Interior Designer: Pope Design Group 
  • Structural Engineer: Innovative Structural Solutions 
  • Civil Engineer: Hansen Thorp Pellinen Olson, Inc. 
  • Electrical D/B Contractor: Hunt Electric 
  • Mechanical D/B Contractor: Modern Heating and Air 
  • Furniture: Henricksen 
  • Photographer: Nate Johnson Studio 

Congrats to all of this year’s NAIOP Minnesota Awards of Excellence honorees and winners! 

The 2025 NAIOP Annual Awards of Excellence was held on Wednesday, September 24, 2025 at the Metropolitan Ballroom & Clubroom.

Categories: