Top Transactions: Medina buyer picks woods over water

Listen to this article

Editor’s note: The Top Transactions feature focuses on the latest top home sales in the Twin Cities area, as well as noteworthy new listings, new residential developments and housing trends. Finance & Commerce checks certificates of real estate value filed with the Minnesota Department of Revenue as well as data from the Northstar Multiple Listing Service, Realtor.com, county records and other sources. 

A family relocating from out of state has bypassed the usual suburban and lake locations and closed on the cash purchase of a $2.7 million home in Deer Hill Preserve, a boutique development in Medina, 20 miles west of downtown Minneapolis.

Minnetonka-based Wooddale Builders completed the four-bedroom, five-bath, 6,800- square-foot Cape Cod classic at 2842 Deer Hill Road in 2018 and used it as a model home until its sale on July 8.

“That’s a big number for something off the water,” Michael Steadman said of the price. Steadman, of the Wayzata office of Coldwell Banker Realty, handled both sides of the sale. “The water” is shorthand for Lake Minnetonka, minutes to the south. On average, prices along the lake are the highest in the state.

Steadman described Deer Hill as a conservation subdivision, with just 40 lots on 170 acres between Highway 55 and Highway 12, spanning Medina and Orono. The goal of the designation is to preserve as much of the natural environment as possible and restore any that has been damaged, he said.

The development lots are more than an acre each, while 90 acres are protected nature areas. There also is a 2-acre park in the center of the home sites, and trails lead to Baker Park Reserve, with another 2,700 acres of open land.

Veteran builder Steve Schwieters, who started Wooddale Builders in 1975, is one of only four builders who were invited to build homes in Deer Hill when it opened in 2018. Schwieters said he had worked with the private developer in the past across the market loved it. “We’ve sold eight houses from it,” he said.

An online photo tour shows the features that come with nearly $3 million to spend. They include the ubiquitous sport court and lower-level entertaining area. There’s a massive three-season porch with a fireplace and remote-controlled phantom screens and vinyl windows. The gourmet kitchen includes a 50-square-foot island.

While the details are lush, interior designer Mary Ellen Dalman said she kept the interior classic as well.

“I designed this so that so that 50 years from now you won’t have to be tearing anything out, like pink tiles,” she said.

Schwieters started out as a framing contractor until he decided his own ideas were better. Housing First Minnesota ranks Wooddale as No. 24 on its list of The Top 25 Builders in the market.

He doesn’t discuss his revenues or the number of units he produces, saying only that he specializes in high-end custom homes and has done more than two dozen villa and townhome developments for the lucrative empty-nester market.

And after 45 years Schwieters also doesn’t talk about retirement.

“I enjoy it as much as the day I started,” he said.

RELATED: Photo tour of 2842 Deer Hill Road, Medina