Type: Townhouse condominiums

Site, Units: 43 units on 6.2 acres

Developer: TC Homes

Details: Eight years after it was first envisioned as a townhouse condominium community, a bank-owned, six-acre parcel in Burnsville is finally on the verge of being built out.

The Burnsville City Council last month gave its unanimous approval to Dayton-based developer TC Homes to proceed with the 43-unit River Valley Commons 2nd addition — a for-sale townhouse project just south of Highway 13 on a spot that has a long history of frustrated development efforts.

In 2005, the national builder Toll Brothers got approval for a 68-unit townhouse project at the site, but never moved ahead. The property was sold to local builder McDevitt Homes, which in 2006 constructed one five-unit building before shelving the plans amid the housing market collapse.

The site then reverted to Minnwest Bank, which proposed 55 townhouses two years ago but again never proceeded.

The bank now has a purchase agreement with TC Homes to move ahead with scaled-back plans for 43 units arrayed in 16 separate buildings of mostly two and three units each.

The development is to happen in two stages. TC Homes co-owner Brian Tutt told the council he hopes to have a model townhouse ready to show by early spring.

"These are larger townhouses that are meant to appeal to people who may be coming from a single-family home or to first-time home buyers," he said. "They're 2,100 square feet, with three bedrooms and a loft. They're not typical 1,500-to-1,600-square-foot townhouses, which are very boxy. We spent a lot of time on the design, and we're very excited about it."

Don Jacobson, a St. Paul freelance writer, is at hotproperty.startribune@gmail.com.