Four-story Apartment Complex, Retail Development Gets Green Light

July 2 was a night of subdued celebration for the Eagan City Council, which gave its blessing to a much-desired residential-retail development. The 180-unit apartment complex will compliment a $100 million shopping mall going up just to the west.

City officials hailed the Stonebridge Development Project, as it is now known, as proof that redevelopment efforts in the Cedar Grove Project Area are paying off. 

"This is a big deal for this area, and it's come after a long wait," Mayor Mike Maguire said at the meeting. "We may not be doing dances and cartwheels up on the dais, but that's because there's a way to go yet."

Maguire and other elected officials hope that the new surge of development will transform the Cedar Grove Project Area, a 96-acre swath of land just south of Highway 13. The area was a hotspot for commercial activity from 1960s until the mid-1980s, when the highway was realigned. The reconfiguration brought a persistent blight to northeast Eagan that lasted through 1998, when the city began to study redevelopment options in the area. 

By contrast, the Stonebridge plan came together quickly. The developer, Stonebridge Companies, first made its pitch to the council on June 4, the same day that  Paragon Outlet Partners broke ground on the 440,000 square foot mall. Less than a month later, the council approved a plan to sell Stonebridge 4.8 acres of city-owned land for $1.8 million. To sweeten the deal, the city agreed to waive $267,000 of sewer access charges.  

Stonebridge rep Wally Johnson showed the council a few mockups of the proposed project, which includes 180 multi-family residential units, an outdoor pool and sun deck, and 14,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. Documents associated with the project suggest that the space may be fitting for a microbrewery. 

In any case, the building had a decidedly metropolitan appearance. One council member noted that the plans reminded her of buildings she'd seen in Minneapolis' Uptown neighborhood. This was no coincidence, Johnson said.

"We wanted a more urban than suburban look to it," Johnson told the council.