Type: Senior apartments

Units: 113

Cost: $26.6 million

Developer: Dominium

Architect: BKV Group

Details: The St. Paul Planning Commission is set to vote Friday on a conditional-use permit for a 113-unit affordable senior housing building on a vacant city-owned site along E. 7th Street.

Plymouth-based Dominium has partnered with the Mississippi Market food co-op to redevelop the former Hospital Linens site. Construction of the co-op is underway, while Dominium is seeking approval for its apartment plans on the western portion of the property.

According to plans by architects BKV Group, the developer is looking to build a four-story structure situated over a one-story underground parking garage. Because of the steep slope of 7th Street, all five stories would be above ground at its westernmost point, with only three visible on the eastern end next to the co-op.

Dominium is looking to land $2.2 million in tax-increment financing assistance to make the project financially feasible for affordable units, which would be available to residents 55 years and older with incomes no greater than 60 percent of the East Side area's median.

The project is in a "traditional neighborhood" zoning area, which limits heights to 35 feet — Dominium is seeking a 45-foot height in the use permit. The Planning Commission's zoning subcommittee unanimously approved the variance last week, but it is opposed by the Dayton's Bluff Community Council. The neighborhood group said the "gargantuan mass" of the apartment building is "out of scale" with the neighborhood.

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