A local property owner is seeking permission to create a mixed-use building in Windsor Locks by converting office space into efficiency apartments.
Windsor Locks-based DePa LLC, controlled by owner Dennis Akpinar of Suffield, is seeking town permission for an “adaptive reuse” of the property at 380 South Center St.
The property is zoned business, but the building was originally residential when first built in the 1950s, Akpinar said. An extension was built in the 1980s, and the building has since been converted into commercial space.
However, the pandemic has diminished the need for small office units such as these, he said.
He is proposing a mixed-use development by converting the second floor into four efficiency-style apartments. Each unit would require installation of a new kitchenette and new or expanded bathrooms. Soundproofing between the first and second floors would be added, and no changes would be made to the exterior of the building.
The property sits just off exit 41 of Interstate 91.
The Planning and Zoning Commission will host a public hearing on the application at the Sept. 11 meeting.
