Denver-based Brickstone Partners is moving ahead with its effort to demolish a 1950s office building on the north side of Lake Calhoun in order to build a 200-unit residential tower.
This week, Brickstone presented revised plans for the project to the Minneapolis Planning Commission's committee of the whole. The company now says that it wants to build an eight-story building that is 112 feet tall, down from its initial idea of a 13-story building.
In August 2015, an entity associated with Brickstone paid the Ackerberg Group $8 million for the Lake Pointe Corporate Center at 3100 W. Lake St. The 50,000-square-foot building was built in 1953 and is known best for a colorful, nearly three-story steel sculpture on its driveway and a pair of oversized green Adirondack chairs on its lawn.
Brickstone needs a conditional-use permit from city planners to redevelop the property because the maximum height limitation in the area is 56 feet, or about four stories, and the site is within the Shoreland Overlay District, which further limits the height of structures to 35 feet, or about two stories.
Initially, the developer unveiled three designs to the Cedar-Isles-Dean Neighborhood Association. It favored a taller design because that would take up less ground space than a shorter one. Dan Otis, principal at Brickstone Partners, said then that a 13-story design would be the best fit by allowing for the most green space.
At the time, Otis also said that if Brickstone proceeded with a 13-story building, there was a chance it might build for-sale condos. No word yet on whether that's still true. Also no word on the fate of the chairs or steel sculpture.
