Renderings by ESG Architecture & Design

Developer United Properties wants to build a 186-unit senior apartment complex and hotel next to the Carlson Towers offices in Minnetonka.

United Properties has proposed to build a six-story apartment development for residents ages 55 and older on a grassy area west of the Carlson Towers on Carlson Parkway near Interstate 394. According to documents submitted to the city made available Wednesday, the project has been preliminarily named the Pointe.

Construction of the apartments was anticipated to begin in 2020 and proposed to be completed by 2022. The second stage of the Pointe project would consist of a four- or five-story hotel with up to 140 rooms that would be built on the southern half of the property. A lawn area with amenities like pickle ball and bocce courts would separate the two buildings.

A United Properties spokeswoman declined to comment on the proposed project. The Minnetonka planning commission is scheduled to discuss the concept plan at its Dec. 5 meeting.

The nine-acre property is owned by Winnipeg-based Artis REIT, which had earlier planned to build a 14-story office tower with Ryan Cos. on the site.

A residential development within the office campus wouldn’t be much of a stretch. In 2015, the Island Residences, a 174-unit luxury apartments project, was completed on the island in a natural lake just north of the Carlson Towers.

Photo by Jeff Wheeler

A Chicago investment firm has purchased Calhoun Square and an adjacent vacant lot in Uptown’s busy retail district for $34.5 million, half of the more than $69 million the shopping center sold for five years ago.

The Uptown landmark on the corner of Lake Street and Hennepin Avenue has had its struggles with several retailers recently departing the building including the Libertine restaurant in September and Famous Dave’s earlier this year.

Northpond Partners, which purchased the site from Minneapolis-based the Ackerberg Group last week, plans to make “significant changes” to Calhoun Square after some research and consultation with residents, said Sam Ankin, managing principal of Northpond Partners.

“We are super cognizant and understand that Calhoun Square has not been working,” Ankin said, in an interview Thursday morning. “We really believe that’s not because of the location or the neighborhood. That’s because of the mix of the building and the wrong tenants.”

Ankin said Northpond is open to a range of different uses for the 171,000-square-foot center, and the firm will take the next two to four months to explore its options.

Uptown like St. Paul’s Grand Avenue shopping boulevard is going through a transition with it losing long-term retail stores North Face and Columbia earlier this year. But Ankin said the neighborhood is still vibrant with the addition of new apartments, the location’s high walkability, and the popularity of the nearby Chain of Lakes.

“We just think that it’s still the best if not one of the best urban neighborhoods in the Twin Cities,” Ankin said.

Northpond Partners is an investor and operator of retail and urban mixed-use properties with its current portfolio including the Broadway and Icehouse Plaza properties in Minneapolis.