The Edina City Council got its first look this week at plans for a 375-unit apartment building that's being proposed by a Florida developer that already has several projects underway in the Twin Cities.
DLC Residential of Aventura, Fla., wants to build two buildings in two phases on a 5.7-acre site between Hwy. 62 and Southdale Center.
The project, at W. 66th Street and York Avenue S., is one of several large luxury buildings being built in the suburbs as developers of upscale rentals look for sites beyond downtown Minneapolis.
Edina, for example, is in the midst of its own building boomlet. Of the 1,288 new apartments that opened this year in the south metro, 232 of them were at One Southdale Place in Edina, according to a quarterly report from NAI Everest. Two more buildings are under construction: 246 units at 71 France and 242 units at 6725 York Av. S.There's also a proposal to build 160 units at 7200 France Av.
The average apartment vacancy in the southwest metro, which includes Edina, was 1.7 percent during the first quarter.
A document recently submitted to the Edina Planning Commission said the project will replace surface parking lots and a pair of dated office buildings with more "vital" development that is accessible to pedestrians and in alignment with the city's long-term planning goals.
"It will create a one-of-a-kind luxury residential community that is in short supply today," the document said. "It will transform the current auto-centric office development."
The site now houses a medical office building and the Titus Building. The first phase of the project would be a six- to seven-story, 230-unit building on the western portion of the site. The second phase would be a five- to six-story, 145-unit building. Both buildings would have underground parking with room for 575 cars.
