Lincoln Drive Residences

Address: 5901 Lincoln Dr., Edina

Type: Market-rate apartments

Units: 240-260

Developer & Architect: Opus Development Co.

Details: Opus Development Co. is planning to redevelop the site of a former UnitedHealth Group office building in Edina into a 240-to-260-unit luxury apartment complex, to be called Lincoln Drive Residences.

Under the plans submitted to Edina city officials, the 37-year-old, 307,000-square-foot building, once fully leased for UnitedHealth operations, would be razed and replaced with a four-story apartment building above a single story of underground parking.

The site across Hwy. 169 from UnitedHealth's Minnetonka corporate headquarters is shared by another office building that was recently leased to Children's Hospitals and Clinics. The health care provider signed a deal last year for about 200,000 square feet in that structure, in which it is consolidating about 650 administrative workers now spread across five leased locations in Roseville, Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Under Opus' preliminary design plans, the Lincoln Drive Residences would be built around a central courtyard. Its exterior elevations feature patterns of angled walls and recessed balconies facing Hwy. 169.

The developer calls the project a "a new premier housing opportunity for the surrounding professional population" and is seeking rezoning to allow both office and high-density residential uses.

Don Jacobson