Plans are moving ahead in Minnetonka for a unique apartment development: a 174-unit building on a vacant, wooded island in the shadow of the Carlson Center corporate campus.
The project is being developed by High Street Residential, the residential subsidiary of Dallas-based Trammell Crow Company, and its joint venture partner: Principal Real Estate Investors of Des Moines, Iowa. Plans call to start construction of The Island Residences at Carlson Center later this month, with completion set for the fourth quarter of 2015.
Even in a busy market for new apartment development, the project stands out. The five-story apartment project is one-of-a-kind in the Twin Cities: luxury apartments on a secluded island, surrounded by water on all sides. The site is at the northwest corner of Interstate 394 and Interstate 494, not far from Ridgedale Center.
Grady Hamilton and John Carlson of Trammell Crow Company’s Midwest Business Unit said that they acquired the Minnetonka site, which currently has no assigned address, for $2 million on July 30. Hamilton is a principal with Trammell Crow and Carlson is a senior vice president. Both Hamilton and Carlson are natives of the Twin Cities; Trammell Crow’s Midwest office is in the Chicago area.
Amid the ongoing apartment building boom, Hamilton says that his group saw an opening for a luxury apartment project in the western suburbs, an area with less competition than downtown Minneapolis.
“We believe pretty strongly in the multifamily fundamentals in Minneapolis and St. Paul,” Hamilton told Twin Cities Business on Tuesday morning. “We couldn’t be happier with this location. There aren’t many active projects underway in the western suburban market that we feel we will compete with.”
Minnetonka-based Carlson Real Estate Company had owned the site, which is just under 12 acres. Two pedestrian bridges to the island and a walking path on the site will be preserved, and the developers will be adding a bridge for vehicles to the island.
Hamilton and Carlson declined to disclose the overall project budget for The Island Residences at Carlson Center. All told, Trammell Crow currently has more than $200 million in development projects in the Twin Cities and Chicago areas.
The company’s other local apartment projects include the 182-unit Junction Flats, which opened at the beginning of August in the North Loop area of downtown Minneapolis, and the 165-unit Arcata, which opens in mid-November in Golden Valley. The Arcata project is also bringing apartments to a corporate setting: the project is next to The Colonnade office tower.