Woodlake Plaza Redevelopers Get More Approvals from City Council

 are inching closer to their planned redevelopment. Tuesday night, Richfield City Council granted a utility easement, adopted the final plat and approved rezoning the area for multi-family residential.

The developers, Woodlake Partners of St. Paul, plan to remove the existing strip and replace it with a 94-unit apartment complex. Twenty percent of the units will be designated as affordable housing.

 and approved the sale of city bonds. These were necessary for Woodlake Partners to secure funding by the end of this month. Assuming the funding is secured by the end of September, developers hope to begin construction this fall and finished by fall 2012.

, but that funding fell through after months of postponements. The developers have since found private funding to go along with the city bonds. City staff and the developers have worked for nearly three years to launch the project.

The approved plat gave the apartment complex its official addresses: 515 and 521 W. 64th St.