Address: 6501 Woodlake Dr., Richfield

New apartment units: 50

Retail remodeling: 16,000 square feet

Developer: E.J. Plesko & Associates

Architect: Built Form LLC

Details: The owner of Richfield's Village Shores senior apartments and its connected Market Plaza shopping center is preparing major upgrades to the complex, including an addition to the 32-year-old residential tower.

E.J. Plesko & Associates of Madison, Wis., last month secured City Council approvals for the multifaceted project, highlighted by a 50-unit addition to the eight-story apartment building at the northwest corner of 66th Street and Lyndale Avenue S.

The new units will allow Village Shores to expand from its current independent living-only model to a "continuum of care" model wherein independent living, assisted living and units designed for those with Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia are in the same complex.

A face-lift is planned for the Market Plaza retail strip in part to accommodate a major new tenant. Plesko says it signed a lease with Hennepin County Medical Center to open a 16,000-square-foot clinic in the center. More work will be done to spruce up the property.

The plans also call for new trellis structures in the far corner of the center's parking lot, which fronts the high-visibility intersection of 66th and Lyndale. The trellised area will be available for temporary uses such as farmers markets. Richfield city staffers said it provides a much-needed visual improvement at the corner.

Don Jacobson