New images unveiled for Hennepin Av. apartment tower

Courtesy of Tushie Montgomery Architects

New renderings now show what an apartment tower on the corner of Hennepin and Washington avenues in downtown Minneapolis could look like.

Developers are proposing a 20-story, 355-unit apartment complex to take up an empty grass lot and parking lot on the prominent corner across from the Whole Foods grocery store, according to Evan Jacobsen, a principal architect at Tushie Montgomery Architects, who is designing the project.

Chicago-area-based developers Harlem Irving Cos. and CA Ventures introduced the project in August to the Downtown Minneapolis Neighborhood Association, and last week the association's land use committee provided a letter of support for the preliminary plans.

Last week, the development group also submitted plans to the city to be discussed at the Sept. 20 planning commission committee of the whole meeting. According to a city report for that meeting, the complex would also have three levels of underground parking with space for 360 spaces and 15 surface spaces. The building, located at 240 Hennepin Av., would be more than 470,000 square feet with close to 21,000 square feet of retail space planned for the first floor.

Across Hennepin Avenue, United Properties has plans to build an office and potentially hotel tower on the Nicollet Hotel Block site.

United Properties hasn't said what its final plans would entail, but the development company is supposed to submit the land use application for the project to the city this month.

CA Ventures has another project on the planning meeting agenda. The developer wants to build what looks to be a 111-unit, six-story apartment building to replace several smaller multi-family properties at 1202 4^th Street SE, next to the Southeast Minneapolis Library in Dinkytown. The complex was designed by ESG.