A 58-unit apartment development from national affordable housing firm Penrose got a key approval this week from the New Haven Board of Zoning Appeal.

The developer wants to turn a former school at 69 Grand Ave. in the city’s Fair Haven neighborhood, built in 1915, into affordable housing. The building has been vacant since 2010, according to Penrose’s application for zoning variances.

Penrose and New Haven officials had earlier inked a land disposition agreement for the city-owned property after the city failed to redevelop the property several times before.

The plan shows a 50,225-square-foot addition onto the former Horace Strong School in addition to rehabbing the building for housing and community space. Some of the building’s units will be offered to local artists, the application says, and while the project won’t be restricted to LGBTQ+ renters, Penrose wrote that it will be working with the New Haven Pride Center to make the building particularly “welcoming and inclusive” of LGBTQ+ renters.

Amenities detailed in the application include four on-site parking spaces and 15 overnight spots at a nearby municipal lot and multiple tenant lounge spaces.