Minneapolis-based Schafer Richardson is developing the six-story, 204-unit market rate apartment building in the North Loop area of Minneapolis' Warehouse District. The Business Journal reports Minneapolis-based Kraus-Anderson Construction Co. is set to start constructing the $39 million project dubbed "Third North" on Thursday. The apartment complex is scheduled to open in December of next year.

The apartment market is on fire in downtown Minneapolis. “It’s kind of a fight to the death to see who can get the property before the next person,” said Dylan Garrison, a leasing agent for Downtown Resource Group.

Developers are scrambling to meet demand for high-end apartment complexes in the Twin Cities. In the fourth quarter of 2011, Minneapolis issued permits to build 1,900 residential units in downtown alone.