Condo king Jim Stanton is striking again.

Emboldened by the recent success of his Stonebridge Lofts in the Minneapolis Mill District, Stanton plans to build 400 luxury condos on a nearby site.

"There's quite a bit of demand out there," Stanton said in an interview Monday. "Rentals are great and get a lot of people to live downtown, but there's a need for ownership options especially among empty nesters."

The Coon Rapids-based developer said he's inked a deal to buy a 189,000-square-foot parcel with a one-story warehouse building at the corner of 12th Avenue and 2nd Street S. Stanton will pay about $8 million for the site, which is being sold by Riversources Life Insurance Co.

Stanton also said Monday he's about to start building Portland Tower, a 17-story project near Elliot Park that he unveiled last fall. It will have 112 units priced from $300,000 to $800,000.

Stanton's plans for the Mill District site are in flux. He is still working on renderings and has to seek municipal or neighborhood approvals on the latest Mill District project.

The 17-story Portland Tower is another Jim Stanton project, which will feature 112 units. He said construction will start soon.

In the interview, Stanton said he will demolish the warehouse, which was mostly recently occupied by Cenveo Inc. and hopes to build one or two towers, possibly in phases.

Stanton's timing was good when he built the 164-unit Stonebridge Lofts next to Gold Medal Park in 2012 and 2013. The project was nearly sold out by the time construction was completed last year.

With developers building thousands of rental apartments, Stanton stood out as the first condo developer in the downtown area during the comeback from the 2008-09 economic downturn.

"We are ecstatic," said Holly Holt, an agent with Keller Williams and the Cynthia Froid Group, which is just down the street from the Mill District project. "We are all jumping up and own for joy that he's willing to go forward and build condos."

As of this week, there were only 56 condominiums for sale in the downtown area, including the North Loop and Mill District. Of those, about 20 already had contingent purchase offers, according to data from the Regional Multiple Listing Service.

Stanton's Shamrock Development has developed thousands of housing units in the metro area.

Jim Buchta • 612-673-7376