Apartments and nonprofits heading for Brooklyn Park.

Byline: Matt M. Johnson

A vacant, city-owned lot in Brooklyn Park that developer Devean George passes every day might be the future site of mixed-income housing and a couple of his favorite nonprofits.

George, a former NBA player who has built mixed-use, affordable apartment buildings in Minneapolis with similar social purpose, believes the property at 7621 Brooklyn Blvd. can provide both new housing the area needs and a boost to youth and food entrepreneurs. He is proposing 75 to 85 apartments for the site, plus more than 7,000 square feet of commercial space that would house his Building Blocks nonprofit, a restaurant and commercial kitchen, and business incubator space.

The building, called the Village Creek Apartments, would rise on a vacant, 1.71-acre site in the southeast quadrant of Brooklyn Boulevard and Zane Avenue North. The property is adjacent to a bowling alley and retail businesses and is part of the Village Creek redevelopment area the city has owned since the early 2000s, said Breanne Rothstein, the city's economic development and housing director.

George's Wayzata-based George North Group has not yet filed a development application with the city even though he has been working on the project proposal for about 18 months. He is gathering comments from potential future neighbors about the proposal. Thus far, he's held a neighborhood meeting and has put a description of the project on the city's website, along with a request for Brooklyn Park residents to read the description and contact him with comments.

So far, the comments George has received have been positive, but he wants to attract a wider cross section of input.

"By no means do I want to force my ideas or my ways on the community," he said in a Wednesday interview. "I'd like to have the neighborhood support before I go in and propose the project to the city."

If George does move ahead with getting approvals for Village Creek, he'd like to be able to break ground next summer and have the nearly $20 million building open about 14 months later. Funding for the project would include city funds, grants, funding from the...