Building size: 4,500 square feet

Parcel size: 1.29 acres

Developer: RBSC Chanhassen LLC

Architect: MSR Architecture

Details: A group led by a veteran Twin Cities developer struck a purchase agreement for a city-owned parcel in Chanhassen with plans to build up to 10,500 square feet of offices.

The Red-E-Mix site is in the northwest quadrant of the Hwy. 5 / 101 intersection that was once used as a cement mixing facility. The city acquired it through condemnation in the 1990s and used it most recently for snow storage.

The City Council this month approved a $500,000 purchase agreement for the 1.29-acre lot with RBSC Chanhassen LLC, led by Randall Schold of Eden Prairie. Schold is co-president of North Dakota-based MetroPlains, which has developed more than 100 Midwestern properties since 1978. He said he's undertaking the Chanhassen effort independently of the firm.

According to plans submitted to the city, the first phase of the project is to be a 4,500-square-foot medical office building, with a 6,000-square-foot office building possible in a future second phase. Schold said he is talking with possible tenants for the medical building. City planners told the council an unnamed tenant "that already has a business in town" had been lined up.

Renderings from Minneapolis-based MSR Architecture show landscaping including a "bioswale" to collect roof runoff and stocked with native plantings to attract butterflies. Also part of the plans are "meditation groves" featuring native trees with seasonal attributes, such as spring flowerings and autumnal colors.

Don Jacobson is a freelance writer in St. Paul. He can be contacted at hotproperty.startribune@gmail.com.