Type: Senior condominiums
Units: 87
Size: 179,000 square feet
Developer: United Properties
Details: After several designs were modified, the latest plans for an Applewood Pointe senior housing complex to be built on the site of an aging retail strip in Minnetonka have advanced.
The city's planning commission this month voted unanimously to approve the latest iteration of Applewood Pointe of Minnetonka submitted by United Properties, in which the developer attempted to address concerns about the "massing" of the building via a revised design. The center of the structure was reduced from four stories to one and then "stepped up" along the wings, giving it the feeling of two separate buildings.
That move required eliminating 13 condominium units and bumped up expected construction costs, United Properties said.
Other changes included lengthier setbacks from the street and the reorientation of the building's west end to minimize its impact on a wetland feature.
At the same meeting, the planning commission also found that the developer's request for tax-increment financing assistance for the project is consistent with the city's general redevelopment goals. Planners determined the subsidy was necessary to make it financially feasible for United Properties to replace the blighted strip mall and deal with the added costs of buying out the leases of some current tenants and addressing soil remediation issues at the site.
In exchange, United Properties is designating nine units for low-income and price-limited buyers at the new Applewood Pointe.
Don Jacobson is a St. Paul-based freelance writer. He can be contacted at hotproperty.startribune@gmail.com.
