Type: Multifamily housing
Units: 55 (phase one)
Cost: $10.5 million
Developer: Sherman Associates
Architect: Kaas Wilson Architects
Details: Minneapolis-based Sherman Associates is proposing a three-phase redevelopment concept for the site of the now-closed Maplewood Bowl in the northeastern St. Paul suburb.
The onetime bowling alley, shuttered for several years, is in Maplewood's Gladstone neighborhood, the oldest part of the city mainly situated along Frost Avenue, which has been the target of long-standing revitalization efforts. The site at the corner of Frost and English Street is at the heart of the neighborhood.
The city says it intends to acquire the Maplewood Bowl site and get it ready for redevelopment with a $1.9 million Livable Communities demonstration grant it has received from the Metropolitan Council.
The Sherman proposal, which would require tax-increment financing as well as the waiving of some city development fees, envisions a first phase consisting of 55 "workforce housing" units, including an affordable housing element. Average rents would be $832. Financing would be secured through the sale of housing tax credits. Sherman says it will apply for the tax credit allocations in June, with a decision expected by October.
The second and third phases, contingent upon further Met Council funding to acquire and prepare the remainder of the site, includes 65 units of senior independent-living apartments and 6,000 square feet of neighborhood retail development.
Sherman has yet to make any formal land-use applications for the effort while financing is being lined up. The city says it expects those to come in later this year or in early 2015.
Don Jacobson is a freelance writer in St. Paul. He can be reached at hotproperty.startribune@gmail.com.
