The City of Medina, MN is looking at putting in a new water tower which will be right near the new Mattamy Homes development in Medina. There is a city council meeting on Tuesday, April 2nd where citizens will have a chance to voice their concerns or support for the effort.
Water Tower Meeting: City of Medina, City Hall
Tuesday, April 2, 2013 at 7pm
You don’t need a report from me to know that new construction is booming in Plymouth, MN. In fact, the northwest Plymouth area was one of the first places to really turn the corner a couple of years ago as we bottomed out in the real estate market. Growth in 2012 has only accelerated and given the continued massive investment firms such as Gonyea and Lennar are doing in the area, 2013 and 2014 should see similar activity.
In the full year report for 2012, you’ll find the following comparisons:
| Plymouth – All | ||
| By School District | ||
| Wayzata | Osseo | |
| Number of Homes Sold | 129 | 14 |
| Average Sold Price | $625,028 | $545,046 |
| Sold Price as % of Orig. List | 99.16% | 100.00% |
| Price per SF | $140.64 | $153.64 |
| TFSF | 4249 | 3642 |
| Abv. Grd. | 3276 | 3033 |
| Blw. Grd. | 972 | 609 |
| FSZ | 1556 | 1435 |
| BR | 4.91 | 4.5 |
| BA | 4.69 | 4.29 |
| GAR | 3.04 | 3 |
| Lot | 0.35 | 0.3 |
The Wayzata School District may be one of the most in demand school districts in the State of Minnesota. In the world of social networks, it sure seems like word is out that this is the place to be. Of course with that has come the stress and strain of accommodating the substantial growth in housing which is bringing in more families and children. The Wayzata School Board has been keeping a keen eye on capacity with the existing facilities and every 6-7 years, they have to redraw the district boundaries particularly for the elementary schools.
But the big issue on the table right now is the need to handle capacity at Wayzata High School. This is a massive, state of the art facility for high school students and they are at capacity of 3200 students. With the continued growth expected in the school district which includes in some way parts of Plymouth, Maple Grove, Medina and Corcoran, the Wayzata School Board and the district administrators have agreed it’s time to seriously look at expanding the facilities at Wayzata High School.
Hundreds of homes will be built over the next several years and people are moving their families out to the Wayzata School District because of the reputation for outstanding education.
The district is currently dealing with trying to acquire the land adjacent to the high school which is Elm Creek Golf Course. I will report more on this in the future as this is a big topic for those looking to move in to Northwest Plymouth.
Gonyea Homes wins BATC Builder of the Year
The Builders Association of the Twin Cities announced that the winner of its Builder of the Year goes to Gonyea Homes. Congratulations to Tony Sonnen and the whole company. It’s a well deserved honor.
The Star Tribune published a brief story today and some of the highlight mentioned were:
Gonyea Homes has built many homes in Spring Meadows, Taylor Creek, Prominence Woods, Prominence Creek and has broken ground on the latest development in northwest Plymouth – Terra Vista.
Toll Brothers finally looks like it might be coming to the western suburbs in a big way. They have purchased the Gorman property in Medina, MN. It’s a highly sought after 80 acre parcel located between Wild Meadows North to the east and Foxberry Farms to the west.
The neighborhood is called The Woods of Medina and will be accessible from both Hackamore Lane to the north and County Road 116 to the west. Toll Brothers is proposing to build 125 luxury homes on the site. There is no pricing available at this time, but I would suspect we’ll see home prices in the $550,000 – $750,000 range. These homes are in the Wayzata School District.
There is a public meeting that will be held on Thursday, October 4th from 5 – 6:30pm at the Hamel Community Building located at 3200 Mill Drive in Uptown Hamel. Toll Brothers staff will be there to answer any questions.
Medina has seen two significant developments launch in the past year. Lennar has been quickly building out its neighborhood in Uptown Hamel call The Enclave. Mattamy Homes will soon be opening it’s new neighborhood located just to the south of Foxberry Farms called the Fields of Medina. Each of these neighborhoods serves a slightly different segment of new home buyers.
Toll Brothers will certainly be competing with many of the local custom home builders who will soon be starting up again in the Terra Vista neighborhood in Plymouth.
If you’d like to stay informed on this project be sure to come back and check this blog as I’ll continue to report on the progress of the new development.
Terra Vista will be Plymouth’s newest custom home neighborhood in the spring of 2013. While the Parade of Homes has just started to close out a very strong 2012, many have already reserved their lots for the newest neighborhood in Northwest Plymouth.
The neighborhood will be similar to the very successful and popular Spring Meadows to the south of this development. Both projects have been developed by Gonyea’s land development company. Homes will be priced from the mid $500,000s but I think you can expect that most will be between $600,000 to $700,000 and in this neighborhood I think we’ll see a few more priced between $700,000 – $800,000.
Given that this is the first weekend of the fall Parade of Homes in the Twin Cities, I thought it might be helpful for those tracking the area who might not be able to get out and drive it all the time, to see some photos of the graded land. There is quite a variation in the elevation of the land from top to bottom which should add to the overall desirability of the eventual neighborhood.
Multi-generational housing has arrived officially in the Twin Cities with the introduction of Lennar’s Next Gen home. Lennar’s concept of a “home within a home” is on display and part of the Parade of Homes that the public can come view. Located is the Bonaire neighborhood in Maple Grove, this is the first of its kind in the Twin Cities.
My wife and I had the pleasure of getting a sneak peak the other day with Bill Burgess, President of Lennar Minnesota. Bill and his team worked very hard to come up with what they believe is finally the right floor plan that works with the Minnesota climate and culture. Janet and I are big fans of the concept as we’ve seen this before having lived on the west coast for a number of years. This kind of floor plan is much more popular in warmer climes. It’s a more challenging task to produce this correctly here in Minnesota. It looks like Lennar has done it right with the Minnesota version of Lennar’s Next Gen product line.
While it makes perfect sense to have this space for multi-generational living…I think owners might want to be careful about letting their post-college grad kids move in to the suite because it is very nice and it might become extraordinarily difficult to get junior out on his own 
That said the space really is terrific. Janet and I could immediately see it working as a deluxe office suite of sorts for a home office on steroids. I will post pictures once they become available. When Janet and I were in there will Bill, they were still doing final touches getting ready for the Parade of Homes. The professional photos should be available in the next week or two and I will post them.
The Star Tribune did a two minute video with Bill Burgess that you can check out at Lennar’s Next Gen – Home within a Home Debut.
Lennar has another very successful neighborhood on its hands with The Enclave tucked away in Uptown Hamel in Medina, MN. Many people struggle trying to find this neighborhood because it’s off the beaten path, but clearly plenty of home buyers are finding it since 23 homes have been sold already! It’s a fabulous location in my opinion. You have to go to Uptown Hamel first and then head south on Hunter Drive to the neighborhood. Home prices seem to run generally in the $450,000 – $500,000 range. The Enclave is located in the Wayzata School District.
Here’s a photo gallery from earlier today.
Pinterest is the latest social media networking site and home builders and remodelers are jumping on Pinterest in a big way. I’ve been involved with a new construction build projects and lately clients are coming in with a portfolio of photos they have grabbed from Pinterest. It used to be they would come in after having torn out articles or ads from various home and design magazines.
For example, Lennar Minnesota has an excellent Pinterest page and is having lots of people re-pin its photos. I don’t think anyone at this point can specifically point to new transactions because of it but it will be an important way for builders to reach their customers and prospective customers. I believe it will be more influential on the overall relationship with new home buyers than the MLS.
If you’re a home builder, remodeler or designer, you need to build a presence on Pinterest now.
MnDOT is working on resurfacing State Highway 55 from Medina to Greenfield beginning today, July 30th through early September. Highway 55 will be closed from County Road 101 to County Road 19. This should make for lots of congestion at the intersection of Highway 55 and County Road 101. That’s where people turn to head north to Wild Meadows, Medina Highlands and of course Target and Office Max in Medina. It’s also the intersection where people head south up the hill to Uptown Hamel where St. Anne’s is located as well as Farmers State Bank, West Financial and the world renowned Howie’s Barbershop.
