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Inver Grove Heights may soon grow its housing stock with help from a familiar name in Minnesota sports as Ace Land Holdings, an entity related to Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf, wants to bring 119 new townhomes to the city.
Tuesday night, the Inver Grove Heights Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of a comprehensive plan amendment and rezoning request for the proposed development, which would rise on part of a 24-acre site just east of Argenta Trail and south of 65th Street.
Plans submitted to the city show 119 new “rowhome/townhome” units, stormwater ponds, a clubhouse and a playground on the site, which is currently zoned for agricultural use.
The city’s 2040 comprehensive plan envisions future office and residential uses on the site. Specifically, the 2.49-acre northwest portion of the site is guided for office and the larger southern parcel is set aside for a combination of “medium” and “low-medium” density residential uses, according to a city staff report.
David Stofer, executive director of development for MV Ventures, a Wilf family-owned commercial real estate development and events company, told the planning commission that the site isn’t suitable for offices.
“Given lack of highway visibility, it doesn’t come off as an office location,” Stofer said.
Entities related to the developer acquired the parcels in 2022 and 2024.
Ace Land Holdings LLC, which shares the same address as MV Ventures in Eagan, paid $5 million in cash for the larger parcel in March 2022, according to Minnesota Department of Revenue records. The sellers included a group of private investors and the Ace In the Hole Real Estate Limited Partnership of Glenview, Illinois.
In October 2024, Ace Land Holdings paid $560,000 in cash for the smaller parcel, according to real estate records.
Stofer said the project site is within the Northwest Area Overlay District and the Shoreland Management Overlay District. As such, “We are required to manage stormwater on the site, which inevitably requires us to create certain retention ponds for those sites, which eats away at our developable acreage,” he said.
Asked if the developer is considering rental or ownership units, Stofer said, “We are contemplating rental. We have not made our final determination. … We hope to be wrapped up with our design and with our architects in the next few months or weeks.”
Planning Commissioner Aida Schaefer said the rezoning and comp plan requests make sense, but she wondered if it would be possible to get more green space into the plan “so there are more areas for all those kids to play in. I know there’s a pool and there’s a clubhouse, but just a thought.”
Next steps for the project include City Council review, which will likely happen on March 24.
The Ace Land Holdings project isn’t the only multifamily development moving forward in Inver Grove Heights.
More than 1,300 units are in the pipeline, at various stages of planning, in Inver Grove Heights, though it remains to be seen how many of those projects will move forward, said Matt Mullins, vice president with Maxfield Research.
In February, Finance & Commerce reported that Minneapolis-based Yellow Tree Development closed on the site of its planned 242-unit, $66.4 million apartment building in the city and hopes to begin pushing dirt by midyear.
Silver Tree LLC, an entity related to Yellow Tree, paid $3.6 million for the 4.4-acre development site at the southwest corner of 70th Street and Agate Trail, according to a certificate of real estate value made public late in February. Builders Lot Group LLC, of Shakopee, was the seller.
Finance & Commerce reported in August that National Land Holdings LLC, a land developer, wants to bring 524 apartments, 145 townhomes and 83 single-family lots to a 108-acre development site at 6470 and 6680 S. Robert Trail and 1401 70th St. E., which is on the east side of South Robert Trail between 70th Street and 65th Street.
RELATED: Hundreds of homes proposed for northwest area of Inver Grove Heights