In St. Paul’s Hamline-Midway neighborhood, a private park has been torn out to make room for affordable housing.

Trees and fencing have been removed from the former “Garden of Poetry” sculpture garden adjoining the Hamline Park Plaza office building, about a block east of Snelling Avenue, and construction of the Thomas Avenue Flats is about to begin.

“We broke ground on Monday,” said Chris Stokka, a development manager with Richfield-based MWF Properties.

The “Garden of Poetry,” which was not officially open to the public, drew few visitors, even among tenants of the office building next door.

MWF Properties plans to turn the former park space into a three-story, 51-unit complex consisting of one-, two- and three-bedroom affordable apartments.

“They’ve come to our development committee two or three times in the last couple of years,” said Michael Jon Olson, executive director of the Hamline-Midway Coalition. “They’re going to start construction any day now. They weren’t requesting any variances. Everything they’re building is within the existing code.”

On its website, MWF Properties describes the project as “workforce housing” in an area that is “primed for growth and development as it is just blocks from the new professional soccer stadium being developed in St. Paul.” It also sits within walking distance of Metro Transit’s A Line, a rapid transit bus corridor that travels Snelling Avenue, and the Green Line light rail corridor on University Avenue.

Our super sleuth 🕵️‍♀️ is hot on the case of what happened to Hamline Park Plaza? Hamline-Midway’s oddest private park is gone… pic.twitter.com/JwYPOMakIa — FredMelo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) May 2, 2018

MWF, which bought the park site several years ago from Alan Hupp and Hupp Holdings, expects to open the Thomas Avenue Flats in April 2019. It’s the latest evolution for the property, which was once associated with Samaritan Hospital, which closed in the mid-1980s.

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St. Paul poised to redraw residential zoning rules near major public transit In the early 1990s, the main part of the hospital across the street was torn down and converted into affordable townhomes by Justin Properties, with financial support from the city and state.

The 37,000-square-foot Hamline Park Plaza building at 570 N. Asbury St. remains popular with professional and healthcare-related office tenants, including chiropractors, therapists and non-profit groups, though it’s gone through some notable turnover over the years. It was built in 1984. Administrative offices for Hamline University’s School of Business moved out in 2014. An adjoining ramp offers 327 parking stalls and private storage space.

The three-level office building was acquired by Todd Geller and the Terrace Group in 2014 after Hamline University left, but the group did not buy the park land next door, and the sculptures were eventually removed.