Custom Home Builder
Twin Cities, MN

Stonewood’s Twin Cities Market: Seventy Years of Metro-Wide Excellence

A Builder Who Knows Every Corner of the Metro

The Twin Cities metropolitan area encompasses seven counties, over three million people, and a residential building landscape of extraordinary variety. The Lake Minnetonka corridor in Hennepin County, with its fourteen lakefront communities from Wayzata to Mound, represents one of the most concentrated collections of luxury residential real estate in the Upper Midwest. The St. Croix River valley in Washington County, anchored by Stillwater, offers a completely different aesthetic and regulatory context: a historic river town with Victorian architecture, bluff-top view lots, and the natural grandeur of a federally protected National Scenic Riverway. The south metro lake corridor in Scott County, centered on Prior Lake, delivers a third residential character: a newer, more suburban lake community with different price dynamics, different school districts, and a different buyer profile. The inner ring suburbs surrounding Minneapolis, including Edina, Plymouth, and Eden Prairie, offer their own mix of established teardown-rebuild opportunities and new construction lots. The northeast metro, anchored by White Bear Lake in Ramsey County, is yet another distinct market with its own community character and buyer expectations.

Stonewood has built in all of these markets. Not as an occasional visitor to unfamiliar territory, but as a builder with genuine depth of experience in each of these specific residential environments. Our Wayzata headquarters places us at the geographic and cultural center of the Lake Minnetonka corridor, which is the core of our market identity. But our portfolio extends throughout the metro because the clients we serve throughout the Twin Cities have come to know that Stonewood’s commitment to original design, budget transparency, and quality execution travels wherever our clients need us to go.

The Lake Minnetonka Corridor: Where Stonewood Is Deepest

While Stonewood builds throughout the Twin Cities metro, the Lake Minnetonka corridor is where our roots go deepest. Headquartered in Wayzata, we have served every community on Lake Minnetonka’s fourteen-city shoreline: Wayzata, Orono, Deephaven, Minnetonka, Shorewood, Excelsior, Minnetrista, Mound, Minnetonka Beach, Greenwood, Woodland, Tonka Bay, Spring Park, and Long Lake. Each community has distinct building regulations, distinct design character, and distinct buyer expectations. Stonewood knows all of them. On Ferndale Road in Wayzata, on Fox Street in Orono, on Stubbs Bay in Orono where we have a confirmed lakefront estate build, on Christmas Lake in Shorewood, and in the intimate private community of Woodland with its 5.9 miles of shoreline in just 0.8 square miles, Stonewood has built homes that reflect the highest standard of what residential construction can achieve on Lake Minnetonka.

The Lake Minnetonka corridor’s regulatory complexity is part of what separates builders who belong here from those who do not. DNR shoreline setback requirements, impervious surface calculations under the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District’s standards, dock engineering, shoreline alteration permits, and the specific design expectations of communities that have been building on this lake at the highest level for over a century are all capabilities that Stonewood has developed and refined over seven decades. When a client building on Lake Minnetonka asks whether their builder knows the specific requirements for the specific bay they are building on, Stonewood’s answer is yes in every case.

West Metro: Eden Prairie, Plymouth, Minnetonka, and Edina

Beyond the Lake Minnetonka corridor, the broader west metro communities of Eden Prairie, Plymouth, Minnetonka, and Edina represent a significant and active luxury custom home market. These communities offer the combination of established neighborhoods with teardown-rebuild opportunities, access to Minneapolis’s employment and cultural core, and school districts that consistently rank among the state’s finest. Edina in particular, with its Country Club District heritage preservation requirements and its ongoing market for contemporary estate homes in newer development areas, represents a nuanced building environment that rewards experience. Stonewood builds throughout all of these west metro communities, bringing the same disciplined process and quality commitment to suburban estate builds that we bring to lakefront construction.

East Metro and St. Croix River Valley

The east metro and St. Croix River valley, anchored by Stillwater and Lake Elmo in Washington County, provide the Twin Cities metro’s most historically and architecturally distinguished building environment outside the Lake Minnetonka corridor. Stillwater, as the birthplace of Minnesota, has a residential character shaped by Victorian architecture, dramatic bluff-top view lots above the St. Croix River, and a community culture that has attracted buyers who prize history, natural setting, and small-city character simultaneously. Stonewood brings full expertise in the St. Croix River corridor’s DNR shoreland regulations, Washington County’s permitting processes, and the design vocabulary appropriate to building in one of the state’s most architecturally self-aware communities.

South Metro and Northeast Metro

The south metro corridor, including Prior Lake in Scott County and the broader Dakota County residential market, and the northeast metro, anchored by White Bear Lake in Ramsey County, complete Stonewood’s Twin Cities coverage. Prior Lake’s two-part connected lake system and its south metro lifestyle offer a compelling custom home market for buyers who commute to the south metro’s employment centers. White Bear Lake, with its A-rated lake water quality, exclusive private lakefront enclaves like Manito Island and Toska Park, and its mid-century housing stock ready for teardown-rebuild, represents a northeast metro market with its own distinct character and demand profile. Stonewood serves both communities with the same expertise and commitment it brings to the Lake Minnetonka corridor.

Stonewood’s Twin Cities Process: Consistent Quality Across Every Market

One of the most important things Stonewood offers Twin Cities clients is consistency. Regardless of which community you are building in, which county’s regulations apply, or what type of project you are commissioning, the Stonewood process is identical in its commitment to transparency, original design, and quality execution. The same pre-construction budget process that gives a Wayzata lakefront client complete financial visibility before design begins is applied to a South Saint Paul teardown-rebuild. The same weekly photo reporting that keeps an Orono client informed during their eighteen-month lakefront estate project applies to a Prior Lake new construction build. The same change order approval discipline that protects a Stillwater client from surprise costs protects every client in every community throughout the Twin Cities metro. Consistency is not a feature of the Stonewood process. It is the product.

Why the Twin Cities Luxury Market Chooses Stonewood

The Twin Cities metropolitan area has no shortage of custom home builders. What it lacks, and what Stonewood uniquely provides, is a builder who combines genuine metro-wide expertise, a seventy-year track record of delivering at the highest quality level, and a complete commitment to client transparency that goes beyond industry norms. Stonewood clients know their budgets before design begins. They receive photo evidence of their project’s progress every week. They approve every change before it happens. They have access to a live project dashboard from any device, at any hour. And they receive their completed home knowing that the warranty behind it is backed by a builder who has been standing behind its work in the Twin Cities for over seven decades. That combination of expertise, transparency, and accountability is what sets Stonewood apart in the Twin Cities luxury residential market, and it is available to every client in every community we serve throughout the metro.

The Stonewood Process: Consistent Quality Across Every Twin Cities Community

Building a custom home is the largest financial decision most people ever make. At Stonewood, our process is designed so that at every single stage, from the first conversation to the day you receive your keys, you know exactly what is happening, why it is happening, and what comes next. This process is identical in every Twin Cities community we serve. Transparency is not a feature of our process. It is the foundation of it.

Technology-Driven Transparency on Every Twin Cities Build

Your Project Dashboard

Stonewood clients throughout the Twin Cities metro have 24/7 access to a dedicated project dashboard with live visibility into schedule milestones, budget reconciliation, change orders, and photo documentation. Whether you are at your property daily or traveling for work, your project is always fully transparent and always accessible from any device.

Comprehensive Visual Documentation

• Drone Photography: Aerial progress documentation capturing roofline, site development, water or landscape orientation, and the relationship of the home to its setting at every major construction milestone throughout the Twin Cities metro.
• 360-Degree Photography: Immersive interior walkthroughs so you can experience your Stonewood home at any construction phase, from anywhere in the world.
• Before and After Documentation: Especially important for teardown-rebuild projects throughout the metro, these complete photographic records serve insurance, warranty, and personal history purposes.
• Weekly Photo Reports: Every progress report includes photo evidence with written notes. Never a vague status update without visual proof.

Financial Controls That Protect You

• Milestone-Tied Payments: Structured payment schedules tied to verified, completed milestones, not arbitrary dates on a calendar.
• Independent Verification: Work completion is independently verified before any draw is released.
• Change Order Approval: No change moves forward without your written approval. No exceptions, in any Twin Cities community.
• Budget Reconciliation: Regular budget reconciliation and cash-flow forecasting throughout your build, so you always know exactly where the project stands financially.