Neighborhoods / Royal Golf Club, Lake Elmo, MN / More luxury buyers take look at east metro
More luxury buyers take look at east metro
(Reprint from Finance & Commerce)
By: Anne Bretts
Until now the stories of multimillion-dollar home sales in the eastern part of the Twin Cities have seemed anecdotal at best.
In 2015 a home in Dellwood sold for $4 million, tying for the last slot on the Finance & Commerce list of Top 10 home sales that year. An $8.18 million home in Woodland in the western half of the metro topped the list. The Dellwood house was the only east metro home in the last three years to make the list, which is dominated by Lake Minnetonka communities, Edina and the occasional Minneapolis mansion or condo. That may be about to change.
This coming weekend, golfers are expected to flock to Lake Elmo for the opening of the Royal Golf Club, the redeveloped version of the former Tartan Park owned by 3M Co. A new ownership group led by Hollis Cavner, CEO of Florida-based ProLinks Sports and owner of the TPC Twin Cities golf course in Blaine, paid $5 million for the 477-acre site in 2016.
The 18-hole course was designed by golf pro Annika Sörenstam and legendary golfer Arnold Palmer just before he died in 2017.
Along the greens and fairways, new golfers will get a glimpse of dozens of luxury homes under construction in the Royal Club, the 292-lot companion development that’s turning anecdotes into measurable success.
“We’re feeling really good about it,” said Jim Boo, executive sales director, about lot sales for phase one. Six custom builders began taking reservations from clients in 2017 and have sold about 80 percent of the first 73 lots available for full-size single-family homes and villas, the latter smaller homes designed for empty nesters. Builders held a launch party for phase two earlier this month.
“A lot of people thought it would take eight to 10 years,” Boo said about completing the entire community. “I think it’s going to be four to five.”
Home prices are expected to begin at about $700,000, which isn’t unusual in the area. The question is how high prices will climb for the showcase homes expected to be part of the mix. Royal Club is projected to draw some traditional golf fans itching for something new.
“We haven’t seen a new course in nine years,” said Warren Ryan, communications director of the Minnesota Golf Association.
The last new golf course and residential development to open in Minnesota was the Wedgewood Golf Course in Albert Lea back in 2009, he said. The Bearpath Golf & Country Club, including a course designed by Jack Nicklaus and a gated luxury home community, opened in 1996. TPC Twin Cities, a course designed by Palmer in consultation with Tom Lehman, opened in 2000.
A golf course is far from a guarantee of success for housing developers. Since the golfing association started keeping track in 2003, it has recorded the closing of 48 courses around the state, with some of them turned into new residential communities, Ryan said.
Water also is a draw for buyers, just as it is in the western suburbs. In the east metro, some of the most expensive homes sales have been around White Bear Lake and along the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers.
Agents, developers and builders point to a series of new and proposed business developments that should raise the east metro’s profile and generate a buyer pool of highly paid executives, medical professionals, athletes and staff.
The real estate pros are banking those buyers will be unwilling to commute the nearly 40 miles from Eagan to Lake Minnetonka if there are luxury communities available east of the Mississippi.
New high-profile business developments include:
- The Minnesota Vikings football team’s headquarters and practice field, part of the Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center, opened in March on a 200-acre campus at Dodd Road and Lone Oak Parkway in Eagan. The campus will eventually be developed with up to 1,000 units, primarily multifamily housing.
- Treasure Island Center, the 540,000-square-foot mixed-use office, retail and sports facility has opened as the practice center for the Minnesota Wild and Hamline University’s men’s and women’s hockey teams, with 5,500 hours of community use available yearly.
- Stillwater’s Lakeview Hospital in October bought about one-third of the 68 acres of land it needs to build a new hospital campus, medical office space and housing on the northeast corner of Manning Avenue and Highway 36.
- Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic in February submitted plans to the city of Hudson, Wisconsin, for a 100,000-square-foot facility with clinic rooms, operating rooms and procedure suites. It would offer primary care, specialty care and outpatient surgery services.
- The Self Esteem Brands Corporate Campus, home to the headquarters of Anytime Fitness, opened in 2016 in Woodbury.
There’s another reason buyers will like the east metro, said real estate agent Jim Seabold of Coldwell Banker Burnet’s Crocus Hill office in St. Paul. “You can get more value for your money,” he said. Seabold thinks future demand will focus more on new homes than resales. In what he calls the HGTV era, keeping up with the latest colors and finishes have become key to sales. “It’s not a slight color change, it’s the total opposite,” he said. “And it’s moving so fast that it’s out of style in no time.”
Todd Polifka, president of Custom One Homes in Woodbury, tested the market there six years ago when he developed Autumn Ridge, the first housing development in that suburb with a base price of $1 million. He has one lot left from the original 20. Now he’s opening the nearby Autumn Bluff neighborhood, which will offer a dozen lots with homes priced at $1.25 million and up. He already has five lots on hold for potential buyers, who tend to be medical entrepreneurs, athletes and upper-income sales professionals.
Veterans say the new sales are more than a passing fad.
Tom Budzynski, founder and head of TJB Homes Inc. in Blaine, said that the east metro typically hasn’t drawn as much traffic to its luxury model homes because it has had fewer homes spread over more locations.
The Royal Club development is bringing luxury buyers to one large development and giving them a broad choice of styles and builders, he said.
Budzynski said one of his clients was looking at buying a house in Edina a year ago but didn’t commit. The same buyer visited Royal Club this year and decided to buy.
The results from the recent launch party reflect how strong the interest is, he said. “We held a lot for one client and set up appointments with three others,” Budzynski said of the evening.
Homebuilder Len Pratt agrees.
“I’ve been an East-Sider for the 45 years of my career as a builder,” said Pratt, owner of Pratt Homes in Vadnais Heights. “I’ve seen the gradual but steady increase in demand for executive homes.”
Pratt, who estimates he has built 800 homes over the years, said he started building villas in the 1980s. “It wasn’t my idea, it was my customers,’’ he said. Snowbirds who had patio homes in the South wanted smaller, maintenance-free homes here. What’s different with Royal Club is the concentration of luxury homes in one new neighborhood.
“Its time was just right,” Pratt said. “We did two groundbreakings last week. We had a hard time getting a place to park. You could just feel the energy.”
