Image courtesy of Svigals + Partners

City officials have given the go-ahead to developers seeking to convert an eyesore into hundreds of new apartments at a neighborhood “gateway” in New Haven.

Local investor-developers Mendel Paris and Sim Levenhartz are seeking to tear down a long-vacant industrial building at 781 Whaley Ave. and an occupied 2-story commercial building behind it at 50 Fitch St. In their places, the duo would like to build 245 apartments on the 3.62-acre site, in a building designed by prominent local firm Svigals + Partners.

The site abuts the city’s West River and sits in the commercial hub of New Haven’s Westville neighborhood a mile from the Wilbur Cross Parkway and 2 miles from the city’s downtown.

Plans submitted to the city show a 357,312-square-foot design with a 2,300-square-foot retail unit on its ground floor, along with a 203-space parking garage and a 60-bicycle storage room.

The unit mix will be dominated by studios (93), two-bedrooms (67) and one-bedrooms (74), with three three-bedrooms and four two-bedroom townhouse-style units. Thirteen units will be designated for affordable housing.

Amenities include a courtyard with pool, a yoga studio, gaming room, fitness center, fire pit, coworking space and a publicly-accessible riverwalk.

To compensate for potential flooding from the West River, the parking area will be left open to the free flow of flood waters, with all habitable parts of the building, transformers and generators located above likely flood levels. Columns and elevator shafts, plans filed with the city say, will be designed to withstand flood waters.