Posted Sep 25, 2018, 6:34 PM
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Moderator
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: 360, St. Edwards
Posts: 12,324
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What’s next for Alatus condo tower?
*August 10th, 2018
Quote:
Condominiums in the 40-story tower Alatus LLC is planning to build in Minneapolis’ St. Anthony Falls neighborhood will be more expensive now that a long legal fight to start construction is apparently over.
The Minneapolis-based developer learned on Tuesday that the Minnesota Supreme Court removed the last legal hurdle for the project at 200 Central Ave. SE by denying a petition from the Neighbors for East Side Livability group to block construction. The case had been sent to the Supreme Court after it was denied by the Minnesota Court of Appeals in May.
But 21 months of legal wrangling leading up to the court’s action have delayed the project’s start until next spring. It has also pushed the tower’s construction budget to $185 million, $25 million more than Alatus estimated in May, said Chris Osmundson, Alatus’ development director. The cost increase is largely tied to the increase in the prices of construction materials, he said.
Prices for the 214 condo units in the building are also going up, with the least expensive units increasing in price from $350,000 to $375,000. Top-end units in the building – initially estimated to cost $2 million – will now be marketed for as much as $3.5 million, Osmundson said.
But construction costs aren’t the only factor in the list price. Alatus has increased the prices of the condos based on prices paid for luxury condo units in downtown Minneapolis in recent months, he said.
The increase for the smaller units “won’t even make a blip” for luxury condo buyers interested in the building, said Luke Kleckner, an agent with RE/MAX Advantage Plus. The higher top-end prices also likely won’t hold up sales in the building, given that older downtown condos in need of remodeling are selling in multimillion-dollar deals.
“There are a lot of high-end units that are going for a lot that are functionally obsolete,” Kleckner said in an interview. “People need them. They’re buying resales and are gutting them.”
The Supreme Court’s decision this week now makes the project a sure thing for Alatus, Osmundson said. The developer delayed completing construction documents and securing financing for the project until it was sure it could move ahead.
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