Centex Speeds $170 Mil Upper Landing Project

ST. PAUL, MN-Developers and St. Paul city officialsare pushing ahead one of the largest and costliestcommercial real estate projects in the city–the$170 million Upper Landing urban village on the banksof the Mississippi River in Downtown St. Paul.

The urban village will add 600 housing units and 23,000 sf of commercial space, mostly service retail shops. The project is expect to attract at least 1,000 permanent residents to St. Paul’s riverfront.

After months of cleanup and excavation work headed byGlenn Rehbein Cos. based in Blaine, MN, Dallas-basedCentex Corp. says in a prepared statement it would begin developingthe 21-acre site.

About 300,000 cubic yards of newfill have been added so far to raise the site six feetabove the 100-year flood plain. The living units willbe 11 feet above this plain, since they will sit ontop of ground level garages.

City officials are askingthe Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to remove thesite–a former scrapyard on polluted grounds–fromthe state’s “superfund” list of polluted properties.