After the recent loss of several retailers and restaurants, Grand Avenue in St. Paul has good news — Lunds & Byerlys will build a store on the north side of the avenue's 700 block.

The store will be in a new mixed-use project that will have housing and underground parking.

The retailer will present details of its plan, along with renderings, at a community meeting on the evening of March 18 at the Mount Zion Temple in St. Paul.

"We are looking forward to the opportunity to meet for a neighborhood conversation about our plans to bring a grocery store back to 791 Grand Avenue," Tres Lund, president of Lunds & Byerlys, said in a statement.

Knowlan's Fresh Foods operated in the same spot for more than 20 years. Kowalski's Market has operated a store five blocks west of the Lunds & Byerlys' proposed location since 1983.

Grand Avenue has suffered some setbacks of late with North Face and Ann Taylor Loft closing in the space that will be taken over by Lunds & Byerly's. The outdoor apparel retailer Fjällräven is still open between the two closed stores.

For Lunds & Byerlys, the store will be its 29th in Minnesota. The company last opened a new store in White Bear Lake in 2018. It is planning a store in Apple Valley in 2021.

Grand Avenue endured more turnover in the last year than in the recent past. But most retailers that left were quickly replaced with new tenants. Wild Onion and Axel's Bonfire restaurants have closed, but Red Rabbit, Hyacinth and Iron Ranger opened. Retailers Traditions and Garden of Eden also shuttered their doors last year.

Lunds & Byerlys has a track record of opening stores in mixed-use developments. In 2006, it opened a mixed-use store in northeast Minneapolis and its downtown St. Paul location is at the base of an apartment building.

Fresh Thyme added mixed-use stores last year in St. Louis Park and Minneapolis' Prospect Park.

Aldi will open two more in Minneapolis near Uptown and in Chanhassen and one in St. Paul's Phalen neighborhood this year.

Cub will debut its first store in a Minneapolis mixed-use development in May.

John Ewoldt • 612-673-7633