The Connecticut Post Mall’s owners are seeking to turn a portion of the Milford property’s parking lots into 300 units of luxury housing.

Dallas, Texas-based Centennial Real Estate has launched a public relations campaign, including a project website, to build support for its proposal. The intent, it states in a fact sheet about the project, is to diversify the property’s income streams and to add a reliable source of customers to the mall. The company said the mall has a growing vacancy problem and has seen a 20 percent drop in foot traffic over the last five years. Its taxable value also dropped by $30 million in 2019, to $149 million.

Centennial bought the mall in 2015 as part from mall giant Westfield as part of a $1.1 billion deal for several malls. The retail owner owns six other malls from Texas to Washington State and is effecting transformations at several of its holdings. The Milford mall, which has lost two anchor stores in recent years including a Sears location, is its only Connecticut property.

The residential addition’s program would include 135 one-bedroom units, 135 two-bedroom units and 30 three-bedroom units, Centennial said. Renderings show a 4-story multifamily building wrapped around an amenity courtyard on the southeast corner of the mall site.

The New Haven Independent reports that city officials are unhappy with the plans and, even before Centennial has brought them before boards for permitting, are seeking to get the company to shift gears to an office-led redevelopment in an effort to attract New York City companies seeking to establish satellite offices throughout the region in the wake of the pandemic.