Not every big-boned man in his 60s can check his cellphone while doing a split. And not just anyone has taught baseball great Joe Mauer — or the Baltimore Ravens the year they won the Super Bowl, or Cretin-Derham Hall High School athletes, or 13-year-old ballerinas — how to literally stretch for success.

These days, St. Paul-based personal trainer Roger Erickson isn’t just spreading the gospel of strength training and extended recovery stretches. He’s also looking for a new home and live-in work space, thanks to a real estate deal brokered by his former landlord, Robert Kowalski of the Kowalski’s Market family, with Mike Cashill, CEO of At Home Apartments.

As Kowalski explains, the two are asking Erickson to leave his St. Paul rental, with love. Erickson doesn’t really want to talk about it.

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Business owners and community groups refine state aid requests for properties damaged in riots “That’s not fun at all,” said Erickson, 63, who has rented his home training space off Grand Avenue for 17 years.

Across from the Kowalski’s Market at Syndicate and Grand Avenue, At Home’s plans call for converting three houses at 33, 39 and 45 Syndicate St. into a single contiguous structure with 26 apartments.

There’s also 11,000 square feet of office and commercial space, 47 underground parking stalls and a possible ground-level restaurant planned. The powers that be at St. Paul City Hall have signed off on the necessary approvals.

Kowalski’s, which has been consolidating administrative operations, is moving its chief financial officer and accounting department from 33 Syndicate St. down to space it’s remodeling on the second floor of its Eagan location, which will likely be ready by August.

At the end of the block, the home at 45 Syndicate St. was owned by Gene Sitzmann, a longtime St. Paul real estate buyer, who resisted selling for many months.

“I, along with Mike, worked on that for a year and a half to get him to finally sell,” said Kowalski, who is president of the Grand Avenue Business Association.

All the pieces have come together for the new apartment building, except one. Before At Home Apartments can start construction this summer, someone has to find a new home office for Erickson, the stretching guru.

“He’s a real good guy and he lives in the middle,” said Kowalski, Erickson’s longtime landlord, who kept the rent stable for years. “One of the caveats of the deal is we’ve got to find him a place to live. He’s renting. He lives and works in the same house.”

“Change is hard,” added Kowalski, “and I know he wishes we had not sold our houses. And if we had not, we would have let him stay indefinitely.”

Erickson said he’s heard a lot of promises and condolences from different corners, but so far, no one has offered him an affordable place to live and work.

Kowalski said At Home Apartments plans to move its St. Paul headquarters from Lincoln Avenue over to the new apartment building when construction is complete.

Meanwhile, in anticipation of its accounting department heading to Eagan, Kowalski’s Markets has moved its catering, meat commissary and bakery production from Eagan to Shoreview, where the company has converted an old Rainbow Foods location.