New affordable apartments proposed for Burnsville’s Heart of the City

The new building would replace two office buildings on Burnsville Parkway; the developer hopes to complete the project over the next two years.

The Minnesota Star Tribune
June 27, 2024 at 1:00PM
An Orange Line bus pulls up for a media tour in Burnsville's Heart of the City are in December 2021. The city's planning commission gave its OK to a proposed affordable apartment building in the area. (David Joles/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Two office buildings will be torn down in Burnsville’s Heart of the City area to make way for a 172-unit affordable apartment building.

On June 10, the Burnsville Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of the project’s preliminary and final plat, said Pete Schroeder, a development associate with Roers Cos., the developer. The City Council is expected to take a final vote on that recommendation July 16.

Office buildings located at 151 and 201 Burnsville Pkwy. — one is vacant and the other has two tenants — will be demolished. The result will be one approximately 4.5-acre lot.

“There’s a strong need for this type of affordable housing really everywhere,” Schroeder said. “This product, I mean, you can hardly tell that it is affordable housing.”

The building will have four stories and one-, two- and three-bedroom units. There will be one level of underground parking. Counting surface lot parking, there will be 266 parking spots.

Schroeder said the building will have many amenities, including a common area with spaces on two floors, and fitness and community areas within that area. Outside, there will be a dog run, a playground and a rooftop deck.

Potential residents must make 60% or less of the area median income to rent an apartment. Rents will range from $1,300 to $1,900 and the building is meant to attract a range of workers, from teachers to police officers to grocery store employees, Schroeder said.

Schroeder said his company anticipates acquiring the property in August and aims for an 18- to 20-month timeframe for construction.

about the writer

about the writer

Erin Adler

Reporter

Erin Adler is a suburban reporter covering Dakota and Scott counties for the Minnesota Star Tribune, working breaking news shifts on Sundays. She previously spent three years covering K-12 education in the south metro and five months covering Carver County.

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