Luxury apartment boom reaches St. Louis Park

The Twin Cities apartment-building craze has reached St. Louis Park.

The inner-ring Minneapolis suburb will serve as home to a new $40 million, 10-story luxury apartment building called 36 Park. The 192-unit building will be located at 3601 Park Center Blvd., near the Target store east of Hwy. 100.

Construction is expected to be completed by March 2013.

Thousands of new apartment units, many of them luxury units, are slated to open in the Twin Cities market in the next three years. The economy's housing bust has made many would-be buyers wary of homeownership, so some are choosing to rent instead.

However, most of the higher-profile projects have been proposed for downtown Minneapolis, including Opus Development Corp.'s 27-story, 250-unit apartment tower at 5th Street and Nicollet Mall, and the renovation of the historic Soo Line Building, at 5th and Marquette, by Michigan-based Village Green Properties, into a 250-unit upscale apartment building.

The 36 Park project is being developed by E.J. Plesko & Associates Inc. of Madison, Wis., Fiduciary Real Estate Development Inc. and Northwestern Mutual, both of Milwaukee. The architect is Chicago-based HOK.

Luxury amenities include a rooftop terrace with a fire pit and grill stations, as well as a clubroom featuring a billiards table, kitchen, fireplace and a piazza recreation area for lawn bowling and other activities.