Address: 7700 block of Wayzata Boulevard, St. Louis Park

Type: Multifamily rental

Developer: Melrose Co. LLC

Units: 27

Architect: ESG Architects

Details: A local developer who last year received the go-ahead for new apartments along Interstate 394 in St. Louis Park has permission to proceed with a second phase on a nearby vacant lot.

Shorewood-based Melrose Co. LLC, led by Bob Cunningham, has secured the rezoning needed to move ahead with Arlington Row East, a 27-unit rental townhouse project to be built on vacant former Minnesota Department of Transportation land fronting the freeway on the 7700 block of Wayzata Boulevard. It will be the cousin of Melrose's Arlington Row West, a 34-unit project now set to begin construction this spring on a similar former MnDOT parcel at the southwest corner of Wayzata Boulevard and Texas Avenue S.

Both sites originally held 1950s single-family homes that were razed when I-394 was expanded in 1980s. MnDOT held them until last year when the city obtained the parcels and in turn sold them to Melrose Co. for $485,000.

Cunningham told City Council members that while Arlington Row East will be marketed as "Class A" luxury apartments, they will rent for lower than is typical for that category at $1.65-$1.70 per square foot, thus making them a more affordable option. Its geothermal heating system will yield tenant energy bills 20 to 40 percent lower than average.

Don Jacobson