Hmong developers partner on The Parkway, affordable apartments on East Seventh Street in St. Paul
February 2, 2022
During the economic downturn in 2009, Michael Thao found a good deal on a sizable piece of land along St. Paul’s East Seventh Street, east of Johnson Parkway. Thao, a residential developer who had moved from St. Paul to Forest Lake, figured he would someday move back to the capital city and build himself a sizable home.
There was just one problem. The plot of land was too sizable for the single-family homes his firm specializes in.
“This was raw land,” said Thao on Thursday, during a tour of The Parkway, a 60-unit apartment building at 1428 East Seventh St. “I decided not to do it because it was a big piece of land for a single-family home.”