Listen to this articleThe year ahead looks bright for development in Plymouth, with a major redevelopment of the former Prudential office campus on Bass Lake Road set to break ground this spring and several mixed-use projects proposed or under construction along Highways 55 and 169.
So how are things shaping up in Maple Grove, just across Plymouth’s northern border?
Housing permit activity tells a rosy story. Maple Grove permitted 676 new homes in 2023, up from 377 in 2022 and the sixth-most of any Minnesota municipality. MnDOT’s Highway 610 extension, slated for completion next year, will improve access west of Interstate 94, home to most remaining undeveloped land in the city. Two major residential projects — Excelsior Group’s Olive Lane Townhomes and a two-phase development by Enclave and Norsq Companies — are under construction near the planned route.
Nonresidential construction is active in Maple Grove as well, led by Boston Scientific’s $170 million expansion near Highway 169 and Interstate 694. A planned expansion of Maple Grove Hospital has already brought a flurry of development farther west along Interstate 94, with Roers completing work on its Terra and Risor multifamily projects last year. And with more undeveloped tracts than any other city along the 494/694 corridor, Maple Grove could see busy times ahead for developers and building contractors.
Less gravel and corn, more health care and medtech
Maple Grove has two development hotbeds: the 2,000-acre gravel mining area (GMA) in the city’s southeastern quadrant and the greenfield tracts on its northwestern fringe.
Construction activity in both areas is driven in part by health care and medtech users. In the northwest, the mixed-use health care hub around Maple Grove Hospital has grown in anticipation of the hospital’s long-delayed expansion plan, said Joe Hogeboom, Maple Grove Community and Economic Development director. The immediate area hosts Twin Cities Orthopedics and Minneapolis Clinic of Neurology outposts, plus medical office uses directly associated with the hospital. A 42,000-square-foot medical office building, dubbed North Grove Medical Center, could soon rise nearby.
“We’ve made a concerted effort to reach out to medical tech and medical office-type businesses,” Hogeboom said.
Maple Grove Hospital’s expansion plans remain up in the air. But just off campus, Roers’ Terra and Risor properties have seen brisk leasing activity as part of Ryan Companies’ ambitious Minnesota Health Village project, which could ultimately include an additional 1.1 million square feet of medical office space.
Meanwhile, in the GMA, Ryan closed last fall on the future site of Boston Scientific’s consolidated Maple Grove headquarters. Construction began in November.
The site, dubbed the Minnesota Science and Technology Center, will house the company’s interventional cardiology, peripheral interventions, watchman, and urology divisions in a $170 million, 400,000-square-foot complex set to open in late 2025 or early 2026. The project is expected to create nearly 200 jobs paying well over the area median wage.
Alternatives to homeownership in northwest Maple Grove
Those new employees will need somewhere to live. For some of them, the answer could lie in a novel housing product — upscale build-to-rent townhomes — taking shape across Interstate 94 from Maple Grove Hospital.
Excelsior Group’s Olive Lane Townhomes and Enclave/Norsq Companies’ Norheim Townhomes are under construction near the intersections of 101st Avenue North, 105th Avenue North and Lawndale Lane North. The formerly agricultural area is immediately north of the Highway 610 extension, which will connect Interstate 94 and County Road 30 when it wraps next year.
“This area is pretty quickly turning from farmland into a very important intersection in Maple Grove,” said Jeff Koch, president of Norsq Cos.
Olive Lane Townhomes is a 136-unit, “fully build-to-rent” community with two- to four-bedroom floor plans with a mix of ground-floor and second-level primary suites, high-end finishes such as quartz countertops, and attached garages prewired for EV charging, said Jill Kiener, vice president of Excelsior Group. A clubhouse along Rush Creek features a fitness center, pool area, and outdoor entertainment space. Olive Lane is not unlike Evanswood, an exclusive detached-home subdivision going up immediately to the west — it’s just owned and maintained by professionals.
“The option to rent a home in a professionally managed community [appeals to] residents who want the privacy and comfort of a brand-new home without the long-term commitment of homeownership,” including young professionals trading up from apartments, empty nesters looking to stay close to family, and recent transplants to the region, Kiener said.
Norheim Townhomes offers a similar product for similar end-users, driven by a similar thesis. But in a desirable, fast-growing area like northwest Maple Grove, Norsq and Enclave seem untroubled by the competition.
“This is one of the more attractive Twin Cities submarkets that still has land available for development,” said Josh Wilcox, president of development, finance and investments for Enclave. “We’ll continue to see growth in that area.”
Northwest Maple Grove — and the city as a whole — owes that appeal to decisions made a generation ago, when city planners sketched out what would become the Arbor Lakes commercial area. With below-average vacancy rates and a growing base of unique, independently owned businesses benefiting from recently refreshed streetscapes and popular events like Maple Grove Days, Arbor Lakes is a draw “almost [on par with] a regional mall for the northwest metro,” said Matt Hazelton, senior director for JLL Capital Markets in Minneapolis.
Developers like Koch and Wilcox have taken notice. Upscale townhome developments don’t absolutely need what Hazelton calls a “top five Twin Cities retail destination” right around the corner, but retail proximity certainly doesn’t hurt, Koch said.
It “really helps with lease-up velocity and stickiness of residents,” he said.
Back to the future?
Norheim’s first phase is a 155-unit townhome community with a “Scandinavian aesthetic” featuring natural wood accents and stainless steel appliances. The garages are deeper than is typical for Twin Cities townhomes, Wilcox said, the better to accommodate full-size pickups and SUVs. Like Olive Lane Townhomes, Norheim’s units have oversized electrical boxes that can easily handle EV chargers. The common areas include outdoor pickleball courts and clubhouse with a “live fitness center,” yoga room, golf simulator, and individual workspaces, Koch said.
“We took a look at [other townhome developments] in the area, noted what we didn’t like, and made improvements,” he said.
The biggest difference between Olive Lane and Norheim is what comes after Norheim’s townhomes. The project’s second phase is a mixed-use complex with 200 apartment units and 10,000 square feet of commercial space. Construction could begin as early as this fall, as work on the first phase approaches completion.
Norheim’s second phase cuts against recent trends in Maple Grove and across the northwest metro, where single-family and townhome projects account for a larger share of new approvals than apartments. Maple Grove approved just one new apartment project in 2023, down from eight in 2020, said Hogeboom — a trend foretold in a 2020 housing market study that found the city’s apartment supply “would catch up with the need and reach saturation” within a few years, he said.
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