In the 1950s, Howard Paster’s grandfather developed his first strip mall — an Applebaum grocery and shopping center — on White Bear and Larpenteur avenues in St. Paul.

It’s been more than half a century, but Paster Properties is venturing back to the city’s East Side for an encore.

This time, the St. Louis Park-based shopping center developer has plans for a small community center, public plaza and a Dutch-style roadway.

According to John Kohler, the company’s vice president of development and construction, Paster has lined up a grocer to occupy a plot of city-owned land near Phalen Lake — south of Rose Avenue and north of Phalen Boulevard, east of Clarence Street. Kohler declined to identify prospective tenants as leases have not yet been finalized.

The project, which has support from City Council Member Dan Bostrom and the District 2 Community Council, is seen as a missing link in the evolution of Phalen Boulevard, a commercial corridor constructed by the city roughly 20 years ago.

Bostrom said before Phalen Boulevard connected Maryland Avenue to Interstate 35E, junkyards, stockyards and asphalt heaps dotted the area. Development has been gradual.

“It was just a mess,” Bostrom said. “It was a wasteland. It’s taken 20 years to get to this point.”

Kohler agreed.

“You’ve got the Phalen Corridor — Cub Foods went in, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension went in, senior apartments went in,” Kohler said. “And this middle piece has been sitting vacant for years. It’s just a square block of grass.”

A STRIP MALL AND MORE

Paster Properties would buy the land from St. Paul’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority for $200,000.

The grocery would take up 22,000 to 23,000 square feet, in addition to adjoining retailers that would occupy 7,000 square feet of new building space.

A smaller building with a drive-through appropriate for a coffee shop would sit in the parking lot.

And behind the new development, along Rose Avenue, a new 750 to 780 square foot community building would connect to a public plaza. Kohler envisions outdoor movies, concerts and presentations.

Rose Avenue in that area would be converted into what the Dutch call a “woonerf,” or low-volume traffic street.

A number of approaches could help slow or reduce traffic there, including a raised and narrowed roadway and softly-angled curbs that facilitate shared uses such as biking and walking.

“Half a dozen times a year, you could actually close off Rose Avenue and you don’t have any dead-ends,” Kohler said. “It connects to the plaza, and you could have a really big public gathering. It may be a gathering place where summer evenings they put a movie up on the wall.” Related Articles Frogtown Community Center unveils new artificial turf field, playground and outdoor fun

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The St. Paul Planning Commission is scheduled to vote on a conditional use permit Friday. Roughly $300,000 in public funding from the city’s “Commercial Vitality Zone” program is attached to the woonerf, related utility relocation and the other public uses.

Chuck Repke, executive director of the District 2 Community Council, said the Metropolitan Council had previously put funds into minor site improvements to draw private sector interest.

For Paster, it’s like coming full circle.

“We’ve been working on it a long time,” Paster said. “Great neighborhood — good to be on the East Side.”