CA Ventures downsizes Dinkytown apartment tower.

Byline: Matt M. Johnson

Developer CA Ventures will avoid the need to amend Minneapolis' comprehensive plan by building a shorter apartment tower than it first planned for a spot in Dinkytown.

The Chicago developer proposed in August to build a tower that would reach 16 to 25 stories on a half-block site at 407 15th Ave. SE. The project, now sized down to 10 stories, would replace an existing McDonald's restaurant and several other properties about one block north of University Avenue Southeast and the University of Minnesota's Minneapolis campus.

A city staff report referencing the original proposal said the higher building heights could only be allowed if the city approved an amendment to Minneapolis' 2040 Plan.

The number of apartments in the CA Ventures proposal also drops, from 370 to 300, according to the staff report. The Minneapolis Planning Commission Committee of the Whole will consider the new design for the building at its Nov. 7 meeting.

The building would include about 23,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and 211 parking stalls on two below-grade levels.

The redevelopment site is about six blocks north of the East Bank Station on the Green Line light rail line.

The McDonald's restaurant it would replace might become part of the project. New project renderings submitted to the city show a McDonald's sign on the outside of the building. McDonald's Corp. owns the largest piece of the block CA wants to develop, a 0.63-acre slice that...