Planning commission recommends approval for OPUS headquarters project at 5100 Eden Avenue, with conditions on access and ground-level materials

The Edina Planning Commission on March 26 recommended City Council approval of a rezoning, subdivision, site plan and related variances for a proposed OPUS corporate headquarters at 5100 Eden Avenue in the Grandview district. The proposed development would demolish the existing “building on stilts,” consolidate seven parcels into one new plat and build a primarily glass 112,000-square-foot office building with roughly 6,000 square feet of street-level retail and restaurant space.

Staff described the property as uniquely constrained by surrounding roadways, large rights-of-way and steep topography. The application seeks rezoning from Planned Office District (POD) to Planned Commercial District 2 (PCD2), variances for floor area ratio (requesting 2.0 FAR where staff cited a typical requirement of 1.5), height (building to rise to about 81 feet where a 48-foot standard was referenced), and several setback and materials exceptions. Staff said the proposal is consistent with the Grandview mixed‑use land use designation and concluded the variances are justified by site constraints…