Biz briefs: Liquor retailer ready to tap Burnsville market

Total Wine & More, a national chain of liquor stores, may be on its way to Burnsville.

The Burnsville Planning Commission last week approved plans for a store in Burnhaven Mall in about 29,000 square feet of vacant space between SuperTarget and Ulta Cosmetics, according to city documents. The plans will be considered by the City Council in April.

The Maryland-based chain announced plans to enter the Twin Cities market last fall. It is working on another store in Roseville and has said it would like to have five to eight stores in the Twin Cities.

Total Wine's stores feature a brewery district with rotating taps of local beers, gourmet snacks, walk-in cigar humidors and interactive iPod stations about wine.

The Burnsville store will be just a few hundred yards away from two other big box merchants that sell liquor — MGM Liquor Warehouse and Costco.

Burnsville finished 2013 as one of the Twin Cities' most active markets for buyers of large rental properties.

Just before the end of the year, Nicollet Ridge Apartments, a 339-unit complex at 51 McAndrews Road, changed hands. The new owner is an affiliate of Resource REIT, a Philadelphia-based real estate investment trust, which paid $33.1 million for the property, according to documents filed with the Minnesota Department of Revenue.

The sale is the latest in a series of apartment property transactions in Burnsville. Earlier in 2013 KES Holdings LLC of Edina paid $5.1 million for Southcross Village Townhomes, a 60-unit complex at 14800 County Road 5. Southwind Village, a 320-unit property at 15001 Greenhaven Drive, was purchased for $31.3 million by Virtu Investments of Carlsbad, Calif. Minneapolis-based Pro One Management acquired the Burningham Apartments at 1501-1513 Burnsville Pkwy. E. from Johnson Management Co. for $15.8 million.

Lakeville, which topped the Twin Cities' single-family homebuilding market in 2013, has gotten off to a strong start this year, according to the latest figures from the Keystone Report for the Builders Association of the Twin Cities.

The city had 36 permits through the end of January, the highest total among metro-area communities tracked by the builders group. Lakeville edged Prior Lake, which had 35.

Lakeville's total compares with 31 for the same month a year ago. Other Dakota County communities posting gains included Apple Valley, with six permits for January, up from four for January 2013; Eagan, with 15, up from eight; Hastings, with two compared with one, and Inver Grove Heights, with nine, up from five.

Burnsville had no home permits for January this year compared with one for January 2013. Farmington had seven vs. 11 for January last year. Rosemount had five compared with six for the same month a year ago.

Send your Dakota County business news to susan.feyder@startribune.com.