Ham Lake, Grant, Stillwater, Forest Lake, Hugo, White Bear Lake, Lake Elmo, Blaine, Mahtomedi — What Is Being Built, Where, and Why It Matters
By Tim Ornell | Ornell Group | Real Broker | White Bear Lake, MN
The Corridor Nobody Is Writing About — But Everyone Serious Is Watching
There is a stretch of the Twin Cities metro that does not get the coverage it deserves. It runs roughly from Blaine and Ham Lake in the northwest through Hugo, Forest Lake, and White Bear Lake across the northern tier, and then curves southeast through Mahtomedi, Grant, Lake Elmo, and Stillwater toward the St. Croix River. This is the corridor where serious new construction at the $1.2 million and above price point is happening right now — where builders are putting product in the ground on acreage lots, wooded homesites, and lake-adjacent parcels that simply do not exist in the closer-in suburbs.
The buyers who are finding this corridor are doing so because they have done their homework. They are executives, relocation buyers, move-up buyers who have outgrown the entry-level luxury product in Maple Grove or Woodbury or Eden Prairie and want something that feels genuinely different from the suburban grid — more land, more privacy, more intentional design, and in many cases a relationship to water and natural landscape that the standard subdivision model cannot deliver.
The Ornell Group covers this corridor. What follows is the most complete overview of what is being built, what is available, and what buyers who are serious about this market need to understand before they start scheduling appointments.
Why New Construction at This Price Point Makes Sense Right Now
Before getting into the specific communities and developments, it is worth spending a moment on why new construction at the $1.2 million and above level is behaving the way it is in this corridor right now.
The inventory of existing luxury homes in the northeastern and eastern metro has tightened meaningfully over the last three to four years. The seller who bought a well-situated lake home or acreage property in 2018 or 2019 and watched it appreciate through the pandemic years is not in a hurry to sell, and the replacement inventory they would need to move into is constrained by the same dynamics. The result is a market where serious buyers at this price point are increasingly looking at new construction not as a second choice behind an existing home they cannot find, but as a deliberate first choice — a way to get exactly what they want in a location that has real long-term value.
The lot itself is the irreplaceable asset. An acreage parcel in Grant or a wooded homesite in Stillwater or a lake-adjacent lot in Forest Lake is not going to be replicated. When a development opens in one of these communities, the window for getting into it at the front end of the price curve is real and it closes. The buyers who understand this dynamic move when the opportunity is right. The buyers who are still waiting for something better to come along are the ones who eventually pay more for a comparable product.
The Ornell Group works with buyers at every stage of this decision — from the first conversation about which community fits the lifestyle to the new construction representation that protects a buyer's interests from lot selection through the final walkthrough.
Community by Community: What Is Being Built
Stillwater and the St. Croix Corridor
Stillwater is the anchor of the eastern corridor and the community that draws the most attention from relocation buyers arriving in the Twin Cities for the first time. The historic downtown, the St. Croix River, the established dining and retail scene, and the Washington County school district backdrop combine to make Stillwater one of the most complete communities in the metro for a buyer who wants a genuine sense of place alongside their real estate investment.
The new construction market in Stillwater at the luxury level is active and specific. Hills of Spring Creek and its second addition represent some of the most significant new construction activity in the city, with custom homes in the $1.2 million to $1.5 million range on homesites that take advantage of the rolling terrain that characterizes the best Stillwater parcels. Browns Creek Estates is an established luxury address with active new construction, and Hanson Builders has been among the most visible quality builders in this segment of the market. White Oaks Savanna — thirty premium lots in a prairie setting minutes from the downtown — represents a different aesthetic, land-forward and nature-connected, suited to the buyer who wants Stillwater's amenity base without a traditional subdivision feel. Saint Croix Crossing, positioned near the river and offering three-acre lots with fully customizable floor plans, is one of the most compelling new acreage options in the entire eastern corridor.
For the relocation buyer who researches markets before they visit, Stillwater is the community that consistently produces the reaction of genuine surprise — that a city this complete, this livable, this visually distinctive exists within forty minutes of the downtown core.
Grant
Grant is not a community that generates national real estate media coverage, and that is precisely why the buyers who find it stay loyal to it. This is a township in Washington County — large lots, wooded homesites, exceptional privacy — that has been home to some of the most significant residential properties in the eastern metro for decades. It is not a place you pass through. It is a place you choose.
Elliott Crossing is the development that serious buyers in this corridor are watching closely. Eighteen expansive acreage lots across more than 180 acres of wooded land — this is the kind of development that does not come around often in the eastern metro, and the buyers who get into it early are establishing positions in a community that has historically held value with exceptional consistency. Grant does not have the commercial amenities of Stillwater or the school district visibility of Lake Elmo, but it has something that both of those communities are increasingly unable to offer at any price: genuine, durable, uncompromised privacy on significant land.
For the executive buyer who is building a primary residence with a long-term horizon — someone who is not going to move again in three years and wants a property that reflects that commitment — Grant deserves serious evaluation.
Lake Elmo
Lake Elmo has emerged as one of the most interesting new construction markets in the entire Twin Cities corridor over the last several years, and the trajectory of values here reflects a community that is still in the process of being discovered by the buyers who will eventually define its character.
NorthStar is Lake Elmo's newest luxury neighborhood, with 2025 and 2026 completions representing the current leading edge of what is available. Wildflower at Lake Elmo offers something different — a community nestled within a 60-acre nature preserve, with a sense of natural integration that the standard new construction development rarely achieves. Easton Village and the Royal Golf Club community round out an inventory of luxury new construction options that gives Lake Elmo more variety at the top end of the price range than almost any other community in Washington County.
Lake Elmo sits in the South Washington County school district, which carries a reputation that matters to the family buyers who are evaluating this community alongside Stillwater and Woodbury. The commute to St. Paul is straightforward. The commute to Minneapolis adds time but is manageable. And the land character of Lake Elmo — the lots are larger here than in most comparable communities, the natural landscape is intact in ways that closer-in suburbs have long since lost — creates a daily living environment that buyers who have seen it do not easily forget.
Mahtomedi
Mahtomedi occupies a specific and irreplaceable position in the eastern metro: a small, tight-knit community on White Bear Lake with its own school district, its own character, and an inventory of significant properties that almost never come to market because the people who own them do not want to leave.
New construction in Mahtomedi is not a volume market. It is a precision market — individual custom home projects on specific lots, often working with builders like Hagstrom Builder who have the local knowledge to navigate what is a demanding build environment in terms of lot constraints and community standards. For the buyer who wants White Bear Lake proximity, the Mahtomedi school district, and a new construction home that does not look like it was built from a catalog — this is a community worth understanding in depth. The supply is limited. That limitation is structural, and it is not going to change.
White Bear Lake
White Bear Lake does not need an introduction in the Twin Cities market. What it needs, for the new construction buyer, is an honest assessment of what is actually available at the high end of the price range.
New construction on White Bear Lake proper is constrained by the same scarcity that makes existing homes on this lake hold value so reliably. The lots that support new construction at the $1.2 million and above level exist, but they are not abundant, and the projects that come to market in this range move with the kind of urgency that reflects how rarely genuine opportunity presents itself here. The Ornell Group watches this market continuously and has active new construction work on adjacent lakes in the White Bear Lake corridor.
Hugo
Hugo is the community in this corridor that has surprised buyers most consistently over the last several years, and the new construction activity underway here reflects both the strength of underlying demand and the quality of product that builders are bringing to this market.
Watercrest of Hugo, Adelaide Landing, and Fable Hill represent the primary active new construction addresses in Hugo at the higher end of the price range, with homes in the $950,000 to $1.2 million range reflecting the land and finish quality that buyers at this level expect. Hugo's position in the Bald Eagle Lake corridor — the proximity to significant recreational water, the access to the Rice Creek Chain, the rural character that persists even as the community grows — makes it a compelling option for the buyer who wants new construction quality alongside the lifestyle that the northeastern lake communities deliver.
M/I Homes has been active in Hugo, and the production builder presence alongside the custom home market gives buyers at different points of the price range genuine options within the same community.
Forest Lake
Forest Lake is one of the largest lakes in the metropolitan area at approximately 2,300 acres, and the new construction activity surrounding it reflects a community that is growing into its potential as a full-service residential destination rather than just a bedroom community at the top of the metro.
Shadow Creek Estates and Hidden Creek represent the primary named development activity in the Forest Lake new construction market, with homes that reflect the preference of Forest Lake buyers for significant square footage, quality finish levels, and reasonable proximity to a large recreational lake without the premium that direct waterfront commands. For the buyer who wants Forest Lake lifestyle — the boating, the fishing, the winter activity, the community infrastructure that has grown significantly around the lake — but is making their first move into the $1.2 million range and wants to maximize what they get for that investment, the Forest Lake non-waterfront new construction market is delivering genuine value.
Ham Lake
Ham Lake sits at the northern edge of the Anoka County corridor and attracts a specific buyer profile: someone who wants acreage, privacy, and a custom build without paying the premium that Stillwater or Grant commands, and who is willing to accept a longer commute in exchange for significantly more land.
Swedish Chapel Estates is the most prominent named development in Ham Lake, and TJB Homes — one of the most active custom luxury builders in the broader metro — has been building in this community and bringing Tour of Homes-level product to a market that does not always get the attention it deserves. The two-acre and larger lots that are standard in Ham Lake are simply not available in any other community at a comparable price point within a reasonable commute of the Twin Cities employment base. For the buyer for whom land is the primary priority and the home is the structure that happens to sit on it, Ham Lake deserves a serious look.
Blaine
Blaine is the most accessible community in this corridor from a commute perspective — close enough to the core metro that it functions as a true suburb while still offering larger lot options and new construction at quality levels that the inner-ring suburbs cannot match at comparable prices.
Crispin Cove is the primary active luxury new construction community in Blaine, with direct access to natural amenities and trail systems that distinguish it from the standard Anoka County subdivision model. TJB Homes has also been active in Blaine with lakeside custom product on Coon Lake, which gives the Blaine buyer who wants water access a legitimate option within the community. For the executive relocation buyer who is most concerned about commute time and wants new construction quality in the $1.2 million range without the distance that Grant or Forest Lake require, Blaine offers a rational and well-priced entry point.
The Acreage Question — Why Land Matters More Than It Did
One of the clearest shifts in buyer preference across the $1.2 million and above new construction market in the Twin Cities corridor over the last three to four years is the elevated priority of land.
Buyers who are spending this kind of money are not interested in a home on a 12,000 square foot lot that looks like the homes on either side of it. They are interested in the experience of owning land — the privacy it provides, the buffer it creates from neighbors and from the sound and activity of the suburbs, the opportunity to build a relationship with an outdoor environment that is genuinely theirs. Ham Lake, Grant, and the acreage sections of Forest Lake and Stillwater deliver that experience at price points that represent genuine value relative to what comparable land costs in the markets that many Twin Cities relocation buyers are arriving from.
The Ornell Group specifically seeks out acreage-based new construction opportunities for clients who have identified land as a priority, and the corridor communities described in this article are where that product exists in 2026.
New Construction and the Lake — The Combination That Defines This Market
The communities in this corridor are not all lake communities, but many of them are adjacent to or connected with the lake lifestyle that defines the Twin Cities residential market at the luxury level. Hugo borders Bald Eagle Lake and connects to the Rice Creek Chain. Forest Lake is built around significant open recreational water. White Bear Lake and Mahtomedi are the lake. Stillwater and Lake Elmo are close enough to both White Bear and the St. Croix that lake access is part of the lifestyle even for buyers who are not on the water directly.
For the relocation buyer who wants new construction quality — the fresh systems, the modern design, the absence of deferred maintenance, the exit optionality that a newly built home provides — alongside the lake lifestyle that distinguishes the Twin Cities from every other major Midwestern metro, this corridor is where both things are available in the same geography.
The Ornell Group's waterfront expertise and new construction market knowledge serve buyers who are making exactly this combination of choices. We have watched these markets through multiple cycles, we know where the value is and where it is not, and we are direct about the difference.
The Ornell Group in This Market
The Ornell Group works with new construction buyers across this corridor — from lot selection through builder negotiation through the final walkthrough — and with sellers in these communities who are preparing to bring significant homes to market. Our waterfront expertise and our track record in the northeastern metro give us visibility into inventory and opportunity that broad-market agents do not have.
If you are evaluating new construction in Ham Lake, Grant, Stillwater, Forest Lake, Hugo, White Bear Lake, Lake Elmo, Blaine, or Mahtomedi — or if you are a relocation buyer trying to understand this corridor before your first visit — I am glad to be the first call.
Reach the Ornell Group at [email protected].
Tim Ornell | Ornell Group | Real Broker | White Bear Lake, MN | [email protected] Waterfront Specialist | 24 Lake Transactions | 28.6 Avg Days on Market | 97.2% List to Sale Ratio | $125M Personal Sales Volume
