Developers plan 450+ apartments at Luther Seminary site in St. Anthony Park
By FREDERICK MELO | fmelo@pioneerpress.com | Pioneer Press
The Minneapolis developer proposing a large residential real estate development in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood of St. Paul is expected to unveil fresh concept plans to the public during a community meeting Thursday.
Master Properties Minnesota plans to buy 15 acres of land from Luther Seminary on its lower campus and construct multiple buildings of up to five stories above grade level. The buildings — to be developed in coordination with two other developers — are expected to include roughly 450 market-rate and affordable apartments, as well as 30 to 40 scattered condos.
The 15 acres span a sizable slope, allowing the developers to place the larger structures downhill from streets currently lined by single-family homes.
“We’re talking about four major buildings, including two senior buildings,” said Sherman Eagles, co-chair of the St. Anthony Park Community Council. “There will be some smaller buildings, and I don’t know that they know exactly how many or how big. They would maybe be four-units, three stories, along the street adjacent to single-family homes.”
The St. Anthony Park Community Council will host a public meeting with the developer at 7 p.m. Thursday at Luther Seminary’s Northwestern Hall auditorium, north of West Hendon Avenue near Fulham Street.
The auditorium is on the lower level, with entrances from Fulham and Hendon.
The meeting also will be live-streamed online. More information is available on the St. Anthony Park Community Council website at sapcc.org.
The seminary plans to consolidate its campus around Olson Hall, making room for fresh development.
Don Gerberding, a partner with Master Properties Minnesota, said his company plans to develop 120 units of market-rate housing with Simek Realty. United Properties plans two new buildings of senior housing — 120 units of assisted living and 120 units of housing that would be put up for sale as co-ops.
CommonBond Properties plans 120 units of affordable housing geared to families. An additional 30 to 40 units of condo housing throughout the site would be put up for sale in buildings of three-to-eight units.
Roughly half the 15 acres of land include the Breck Woods, which sits in Lauderdale, and features a sizable stormwater pond.
“The plans that we’ve seen, part of that (woods) would be preserved and part of that would be developed,” Eagles said. “There’s a desire by many in the neighborhood to try and retain that.”
Gerberding said residents will be pleased to see the woods fully protected in the latest concept plans. “The project is preserving the Breck Woods,” he said. “We’re dedicated to conservancy. It will be reserved as conservation land in perpetuity.”
If the Master Properties development goes through, it won’t be the first redevelopment of former Luther Seminary land, but it will be the largest. Ecumen, a Shoreview-based developer of senior housing, recently opened the 49-unit Zvago St. Anthony Park senior cooperative at 2265 Luther Place.
Recent Comments