Hot Property: Mendota Plaza expansion in Mendota Heights

Address: 750 Hwy. 110, Mendota Heights

Type: Multifamily residential, retail

Apartment units: 139

New retail: 10,860 square feet

Developers: Paster Enterprises, At Home Apartments

Architect: Collage Architects

Details: Plans for a major expansion of the Mendota Plaza shopping center with a new apartment complex and retail buildings are nearly final.

Paster Enterprises, longtime owner of the Mendota Plaza, and St. Paul-based At Home Apartments introduced their proposal to develop a 5-acre parcel adjacent to the mall in May. The city's planning commission endorsed the proposal shortly afterward, but the effort stalled over the summer as the developers awaited permission from the Minnesota Department of Transportation for a direct access off Hwy. 110.

The project team expects that approval soon, so the expansion will be up for final city approvals at the Sept. 20 meeting of the Mendota Heights City Council.

The project's centerpiece is a 139-unit, four-story apartment building overlooking the Dodge Nature Center's Lilly property. It would feature a patio/deck and bridge connecting to the existing Mendota Plaza mall. If built, it would provide the city its first new market-rate rentals since 1984.

Also part of the plans are two new retail buildings, including one of 6,000 square feet with a single restaurant user. The other building would be 4,860 square feet and could house as many as three tenants.