Minnesota Sun Publications

   
Carl Hansen planned for this
day . A native of Norway, Hansen
immigrated to the United States
when he was 16. In the 1920s, he started his construction company and began buying property
family houses. When Hansen
bought 600 acres of farm land in
northwest Edina near Inter-
lachen Country Club, people
told him he was crazy
"Everyone said, You're nuts"
said his grandson, also named
Carl Hansen. "`No one will ever
want to live this far away."
But as Edina grew, the lots
became more valuable,
and closer to the heart of the city.
The property was named
Parkwood Knolls, and has been
developed incrementally by
Hansen Construction of Edina
since the now-deceased
Carl Hansen bought the land more
than 50 years ago.
"He had some vision
Hansen said of his grandfather,
who died in 1991. "We feel it's
nothing we created, but we
obligated to keep it going."
Now, when there's little open
                   

"When people ask me what I do, I say I build new homes in Edina. They say, `How can you build new homes in Edina? Do you mean Maple Grove or Chanhassen?'"

- Carl Hansen,

Hansen Construction of Edina

land left in the city for new
homes, the younger Hansen has
taken over the business from his
father, Harvey Hansen, and is
developing the last acres of
Parkwood Knolls.
"When people ask me what I
do, I say I build new homes in
Edina," Hansen said during a
tour of Parkwood Knolls last
week. "They say, `How can you
build new homes in Edina? Do
you mean Maple Grove or Chan-
hassen?"
Parkwood Knolls has 29 lots
left in its second-to-last section
of the 600 acres. When the cur-
rent section of 41 lots is 75 per-
cent sold, Hansen will begin sell-
ing lots from the development's
next, and final section. The last
section has 50 lots.