After several years of environmental cleanup and a stream of development proposals, the former Superior Plating site in northeast Minneapolis officially has a new owner.
Lennar Multifamily paid $13.7 million to owner First & University Investors for the two-block-site at 315 1st Av. NE., which is two blocks from the Mississippi River, people associated with the deal said Monday.
The sale puts the company at the head of a line of developers with plans for new towers on the northeast side of the river. At least three other firms have said they want to build high-rise housing in the area, which is dominated by low-rise storefronts and just a handful of towers built in the 1980s.
Lennar, a division of the Florida-based homebuilder, plans to build more than 250 rental apartments, a 20-story tower and 22,000 square feet of commercial space on half of the 5.45-acre site.
Lennar's vice president of development, Peter Chmielewski, said construction on phase one is expected to begin this fall.
After signing a purchase agreement to buy the property last year, Lennar has been working with ESG Architects on a plan for the site, which will include an apartment tower atop retail and townhouse-style rentals. After a handful of revisions, in May the plan received an enthusiastic response from the neighborhood group.
"The northeast Minneapolis neighborhood is one of the most vibrant and sought after locations for restaurants, retail and apartment living," said Gina Dingman, president of NAI Everest, which brokered the deal. "It is terrific that Lennar was able to acquire this site."
The site was originally home to a streetcar repair barn in the 1890s. Superior Plating, a metal finishing business, occupied the site from the 1950s to late 2011. Cleanup of the heavily polluted site cost more than $6 million.
