The St. Paul public school district has closed on the sale of a former school property in St. Paul’s Highland Park Neighborhood to a developer that wants to build 155 senior housing units on the site.Minneapolis-based J.A. Wedum Foundation, working with development consultant Essential Decisions of Roseville, paid $1.7 million for a portion of the property at 848 Albion Ave., according to a certificate of real estate value made public last week.

Scott Black, president of Essential Decisions, said Monday that the purchase price for the entire 5.5-acre development site is $3.4 million. The development site fronts West Seventh Street and is framed by Lexington Avenue on the west and Albion Avenue on the north.

The sale was treated as two separate property transactions because Ramsey County has plans to reroute Lexington Avenue through the site, Black said. The realignment of Lexington Avenue would improve the safety of the intersection where Lexington, West Seventh Street and Montreal Avenue converge, according to a June 2018 city staff report.

Some site work has already begun for the 17-month senior housing project, Black said. St. Louis Park-based Anderson Cos. is the general contractor and St. Paul-based Pope Architects has design duties.

Known as Lexington Landing, the $43.5 million project will offer 98 independent living apartments, 36 assisted-living dwellings, and 21 memory-care units in a five-story building, Black said.

Anchored by a 20,000-square-foot “town center,” the project will include a bistro, exercise room, theater, library, community room and other common areas. A mix of underground and surface parking will serve the development, which will be managed by Presbyterian Homes and Services.

Kevin Gallatin, board chair of the Highland District Council, said last June that residents have expressed a desire for more housing that will enable them to “age in place” in a neighborhood where they have deep roots.

The site is the former home of the Riverview School, which was demolished in 2017. Modern streetcars would run past the site as part of the proposed Riverview Corridor project. Construction of the $1.4 billion to $2 billion Riverview Corridor could begin in 2028.