Boone Avenue Convenience Center 600 Boone Av. N., Golden Valley

Type: Retail Size: 4,920 square feet Developer: Linn Companies

Details: The developer of several new gas station-anchored retail centers around the Twin Cities has received preliminary approval for a planned unit development in Golden Valley.

Woodbury-based Linn Companies, which has 15 automotive retail locations and owns and manages 19 commercial properties, presented plans to transform a BP station at Hwy. 55 and Boone Av. N. into a center that would include a new, 4,900-square-foot multitenant retail building.

The plans would see the current gas station "dressed up" to modern standards, with architectural upgrades including stone columns, additional rooflines, new awnings and light fixtures.

Its style would match that of the adjacent new building, which could house as many as four tenants or as few as one large user. Likely tenants for the center include restaurants or automotive-theme businesses.

The space is being marketed by Cushman & Wakefield/Northmarq, Linn Companies President Stephen Linn told the Golden Valley Planning Commission at its Aug. 15 meeting.

"We've been around since 1964 and we have a desire to only own and operate first-class facilities that enhance the community," he said.

He cited a similar project Linn Companies and its partner Architectural Consortium carried out last year in Coon Rapids, where its new Holiday Station-anchored center was nominated for a design award by the Minnesota Shopping Center Association.

The commission voted to recommend City Council approval for a plan that would replat the site into two lots -- one of them next to a Bassett Creek flood control levee -- and rezone them both as a planned unit development.

Don Jacobson is a St. Paul-based freelance writer. He can be contacted at hotproperty.startribune@gmail.com.