What’s Happening There?: Happy Liquor, Rebuilding & Church Sign

Thanks to Inver Grove Ford, Clover Montessori School, and Dakota County for their support.

The West St. Paul Planning Commission has three public hearings for upcoming projects, including a liquor store, rebuilding a fire damaged building, and a church sign.

When: The Planning Commission meeting is on Tuesday, December 19 at 6:30 p.m. at city hall.

Projects

The three projects include:

Happy Liquor

• What: A 5,400-square-foot off-sale liquor store.
• Where: 1214 Robert Street S., between Dunkin’ Donuts and Great Moon Buffet.
• Who: Yinying (Jenny) Zhong and Yun (Michael) Xie, of Robert Street Centre, LLC, who own the building, are applying for the liquor license. The store will employ up to five people.
• History: The space has been empty since 2011 when Ace Hardware closed (in 2017, the southern 30 feet of the building was demolished to make way for Dunkin’ Donuts).
• Notes: This will be the tenth off-sale liquor store in West St. Paul and there is no cap liquor stores.

1254 Robert Street

• What: A fire in May 2023 significantly damaged 1254 Robert Street, a commercial store front (formerly Minnesota Locks) and a residential apartment. Due to the damage, the owner can rebuild the non-conforming site to the pre-existing state, so this is a reconstruction project.
• Where: 1254 Robert Street S., next to Jiffy Lube and Bicycle Bills/New Latino Travel.
• Who: Owner William Goldberg applied for the conditional user permit to reconstruct the building.
• Notes: Since this is a non-conforming rebuild, a number of conditions apply to the project. There are currently no plans for the small retail space.

Church Sign

• What: Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church is upgrading their current message board sign to an electronic sign.
• Where: 11 Bernard Street W.
• Notes: Animation of any kind is prohibited. They also plan to shut off the sign entirely from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.

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