NASHUA – Officials with Harbor Property Group have high hopes of constructing a five-story, 48-unit apartment complex on Amherst Street.

However, although slated as an agenda item for the Wednesday Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting, officials never got to consider the request to build apartment units on the 3-acre parcel at 546 Amherst St., which is currently owned by Southern New Hampshire University. The meeting was postponed because due to a member’s absence. It is now slated to appear on the board’s agenda Sept. 25.

Nonetheless, the applicants propose to use the triangular plot of land near Round Pond to also allow for retail and commercial use. There is a single-story building on the site, which, in recent years, was used as a branch campus for SNHU.

However, the proposal requests to keep the building the way it is, and divide it into three retail spaces, along with creating a 100-seat restaurant on the northern elevation facing Round Pond. The five-story apartment building is being proposed for the southernmost portion of the site, perpendicular to Amherst Street.

“The activity provided with the new construction should increase the value of the surrounding properties,” the application on file at Nashua City Hall states.

The first floor of the apartment complex would be used for a parking garage, while the four floors above would house 12 units per floor. There will be access to the site in two locations. Also, the existing driveway may be relocated about 50 feet further north.

Carter Falk, deputy planning manager said the Land Use Code requires 1.5 parking spaces per multi-family unit, meaning there would need to be a total of 72 spaces. In that memo, he said there will be 48 spaces under the building, with the remainder being located in the surface parking lot.

“The site will require 127 parking spaces and 134 spaces are proposed, thereby meeting the minimum parking requirements,” Falk wrote in that memo.

The proposal will need to be reviewed by the Nashua Planning Board as well.

Adam Urquhart can be reached at 594-1206 or aurquhart@nashuatelegraph.com.