Completed: Solhem Apartments
Real Estate — By Thatcher Imboden on September 22, 2010 1:27 am
November 2009
Project Details
Location: 3017 – 3027 Holmes Avenue S.
Type: Apartments
Status: Completed
Area: Uptown
Developer: Curt Gunsbury & et. al.
Architect: Tushie Montgomery Architects
General Contractor: Greiner Construction
Previous Use: Single-story commercial with parking lot
Post-Development Use: Multi-Family Residential & Commercial
Proposed Height: 68′ (6-stories)
Housing Units/Type: 60 / Apartments
Project Description
Originally proposed as a hotel project, the Solhem Apartment building added 60 units to the Uptown housing market. Billed as a “green” apartment building, the project features dual stream organic trash removal, solar thermal hot water, LED lighting, rain barrel irrigation systems, green walls, sustainable construction materials, and extra insulation. The previous building on the site was recycled and used as a training site for the fire department before demolition.
The six-story building was completed in September 2009.
First proposed in summer 2006 as a boutique hotel project, the project ran into troubles in getting off the ground when the hotel market slowed and the overall economy began to slow. Changing the plans to an apartment building breathed new life into the site. The $13 million project was helped when it received $10.7 million in financing from the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (HIT), with its Chief Investment Officer, Stephanie Wiggins, saying that the “Solhem Apartments will be a wonderful addition to Minneapolis’ housing pool.”
Solhem is Swedish for “Home of the Sun.”
Articles
- “Greiner begins apartment project in Uptown.” Finance & Commerce 28 Oct. 2008.
- Stickler, Emily & Brian Voerding. “Biz Buzz.” Southwest Journal 6 Oct. 2008.
Thatcher Imboden
How cities work and change, how they are the product of their inhabitants and outside forces, and the resulting livability keep me thinking and dreaming about the future. I work in urban real estate development, am Past President of an Uptown business organization, grew up in Uptown, was on an Uptown neighborhood association Board, and am an Uptown and Lyn-Lake historian.
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2 Comments
One of the ugliest buildings ever built in Uptown. Oh, the trailor park beauty of concrete board!
I walked by this building today. Not only does it look cheaply done with the concrete board, but its scale is completely out of proportion to the surrounding area. The Uptown neighborhood should have higher expectations of developers.