Developer plans 23-unit market-rate apartment building at Cleveland and St. Clair

At the corner of Cleveland and St. Clair avenues in St. Paul, a developer is seeking to tear down a one-level dry cleaner’s shop and replace it with 23 apartments over two commercial spaces.

The current plan calls for market-rate units targeted to retirees and empty-nesters, said developer Jeremy Exley, though that could change with the market.

“That’s what we’re aiming for,” he said. “I think this is a really good change for the neighborhood. We’re going to maintain the same amount of commercial square footage (as presently exists), with two different commercial uses instead of just one.”

The new five-story mixed-use apartment building across from the Groveland Elementary school ballfield would require zoning variances for floor area, height and parking. In its zoning variance application, Bloomington-based WEB Developments, LLC said the building height at 235 Cleveland Ave. would reach 54.8 feet instead of the 30 feet ordinarily allowed by city zoning.

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