AMHERST — Nearly a decade after first proposing a mixed-use building for the East Amherst village center, an Amherst developer may be ready to proceed with the project.
The Planning Board on Wednesday will get a first look at what developer Amir Mikhchi is calling Southeast Street Apartments, a project which will contain 48 residential units and six units of commercial space in an L-shaped building. The board’s meeting begins at 7 p.m. at Town Room at Town Hall.
With financing for the project in place, Mikhchi said Tuesday that he hopes to break ground on the project as soon as he has gone through local permitting.
The project would be built at 133 and 143 South East St., where two single-family homes are currently located on a combined 1.26 acres of land.
The site is immediately south of the Amherst Crossing commercial development on College Street, built in 2004 and where a Florence Bank branch and Amherst Pharmacy are located.
The concept plans presented to the Planning Department by Berkshire Design Group show 58 parking spaces at the rear of the parcel.
Steven McCarthy, administrative assistant for the Planning Department, said the village center business zoning means the project would only need site plan review for use of the property, through the Planning Board, though special permits could also be needed.
Town Meeting in 2007 agreed to rezone the land for the explicit purpose of “in-fill” developments that would bring more residents and services and jobs to the village center.
If the project moves forward, it will join other mixed-use projects in other parts of town, including Boltwood Place, Kendrick Place and One East Pleasant in downtown, a permitted project for Spring Street across from the Lord Jeffery Inn and the North Square project in the Mill District of North Amherst that will have its ceremonial groundbreaking next week.
Mikhchi has overseen several projects, including the Auto Express enterprises in Amherst and Hadley, and the Mill Valley Commons retail complex at the intersection of Route 9 and Mill Valley Road in Hadley.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.