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my colleague Bob Collins declared St. Paul's Penfield development all but dead

, the grocery-and-housing project spurts back to life.

The heartbeat we heard comes in the form of a new financing plan that on Wednesday will go before the city's Housing and Redevelopment Authority. The city, which last year became the official developer, envisions a $62 million project including a Lunds grocery topped by 253 market-rate apartments.

You can't blame folks for being skeptical about the Penfield. Initially proposed as a luxury skyscraper during the condo craze of the mid-2000s, the concept has been sliced, diced, and diminished into a box-like apartment building. But Lunds has signed a 10-year lease, bringing hope to downtown denizens and the workaday crowd yearning for fresh produce and gourmet-to-go.

And city planners believe its focus on market-rate rentals (averages ranging from $1,055 to $1,890) will fill a growing demand for "moderate-income" people who want to live downtown. Still, one wonders if a city-led development should include at least some affordable housing.

It's clear St. Paul has a lot riding on this project, situated at 10th and Minnesota streets. According to a staff report:

According to the report, the financing package includes a sizable loan insured by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and calls for the creation of a Penfield tax-increment financing district. Lunds would finance most of its own improvements for the grocery store.

The city received multiple bids on the project. All came back substantially over budget.

Minnesota News

The Cities Blog

Laura Yuen

Author

A long-delayed plan to bring a Lunds grocery and hundreds of new apartments to downtown St. Paul seems to have found its pulse.

Downtown St. Paul Lunds project still breathing

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