The Concierge Apartments in Richfield is one of the Twin Cities' largest rental complexes. Formerly known as Crossroads at Penn, it was sold last year for $41 million to a group headed by Jim Soderberg.
The sprawling complex contains 698 one-bedroom apartments — and two units with two bedrooms each.
Inquiring minds were curious about those two oddball units, but the mystery was solved in a conversation this week with Keith Collins, senior vice president and head of the multifamily housing group for CBRE. Collins knows the Concierge well, having sold the property twice.
When Marv Wolfenson and Harvey Ratner built the place in 1967 as Century Court, Collins said, they altered the template for family reasons.
"Marv and Harv had their mothers live there," he said. "So they made two, two-bedroom apartments."
The lucky renters living large at the Concierge — all two of them — can thank Marv and Harv's maternal devotion but not them directly. Ratner died in 2011 and Wolfenson in 2013.
John Reinan
