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2021 is a big year for construction in West St. Paul as a number of development projects come to fruition. But as you’re driving around town, it can be hard to keep everything straight. We can help.
2021 Development Projects
“2021 will be the year of construction, like no other year,” said Community Development Director Jim Hartshorn at a recent town hall meeting.
Here’s a north to south rundown of all the development happening this year in West St. Paul.
- Annapolis and Robert: Gateway Place apartments, a Dakota County Community Development Authority project of 54 units of workforce housing in a three story building. If the project is successful, they’ll do a second building to the south of the existing one.
- Robert and Haskell: Suite Living Senior Care, a one-story 32-unit senior facility with memory care and assisted living.
- Butler and Livingston: Dominium apartments, perhaps the most visible and highly anticipated project in the city, this $122 million project at the former K-mart and Signal Hills bank sites includes two buildings, a 247-unit, five-story building for seniors and a 146-unit, four story building of workforce housing.
- Butler and Stassen: Thompson Park is getting a major overhaul in 2021 with work starting in April or May.
- Robert and just south of Butler: Wakota Life Care Center, a two-story, five-fold expansion of the former space.
- Robert and Emerson: Tumble Fresh Laundry is coming to the former Perkins space. Look for construction to begin in the summer of 2021.
- Between Thompson and Crawford: Hy-Vee, rumors abound about this long-awaited project, but despite a slow start, it’s still in the works.
- Thompson and Carrie: The Westlyn, a four-story, 153-unit, market-rate apartment complex that started construction last fall and should wrap up in 2022.
- Robert and Crawford: River-to-River Greenway underpass, construction on the eastern portion finished up last year and the western portion will happen this year.
- Robert and Wentworth: Town Center One, a project long in the works that will bring 200 market rate apartments, 1,700 square feet of retail, and a small dog park.
- Robert and Wentworth: Jimmy John’s will see an update this year with a new drive thru added.
- Robert and Wentworth: Burger King will tear down the old and build the new, construction expected to start in summer 2021.
- Oakdale and Wentworth: Last fall, More Space Storage got a 12-month extension on their building plans, and supposedly that could start this summer.
- Robert and Marie: Bobby and Steve’s Auto World is getting a major upgrade with a new two-story building, with work expected to start this summer.
- Robert and Crusader: Crew Carwash is coming to the former Bakers Square space with construction expected to begin in the summer of 2021.
How does all that development happen? Here’s a deep dive into why and how development happens in West St. Paul.
2021 Road Construction Projects
You can also look for road construction happening around town:
- Moreland Avenue: Major work on Moreland Avenue from Delaware to Robert Street happening this year, starting in May and running through October. They’ll be adding a sidewalk to the northern side of Moreland.
- Highway 52: MnDOT is doing a mill and overlay on 52, from Concord to 494, this summer. There will be eight weekend closures, but work should be done by the end of July.
- Robert Street: As noted above, the second half of the River-to-River Greenway underpass will happen from May to August, with one lane closed in each direction again.
- Trails: Assuming the bids come back favorably, the trails in Garlough and Marthaler Park will be redone this year.
- Sewer & water: Sewer main and lift station work will start in 2020, as well as water mains around Emerson.
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West St. Paul Reader 
So the Dominium apts at Butler are now workforce and not affordable housing?
Sent from my iPhone Laure 🍀
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They always were described as “workforce housing.”
Wow, that’s a ton of activity! Thanks for the update. Will Jalen Suggs even recognize WSP when he returns? 🙂
It’s nice to see some development, although we seem to have overkill on apts. We need to simultaneously focus on basics, such as street repair. Our city streets are in very poor condition & distracting from quality of life. I’m referring to the backstreets, such as Betty Lane & similar streets. Repair on neighboring streets has been consisting of an asphalt patch down center of street, which is unacceptable. Major streets such as Robert, Marie, Wentworth etc are very good & we appreciate them.
Actually, there’s been a great need for multi-unit housing: https://weststpaulreader.com/2019/09/17/does-west-st-paul-need-more-apartments/
Thank you for your response with supporting research documentation, Kevin. While technically you could be right, I think practically we don’t currently have the infrastructure to support it & I question if we will in future. I was glad to hear that the tax revenue situation would improve. I’m currently paying about $8,000 of property taxes (two homes) & we see very little positive ever happening to improve city back streets (see my original comments). I’m trying to figure out if things get better or worse under your proposal.
What is going in where Perkins used to be?
Betty Jo Talley: Tumble Fresh laundry. It’s listed above.