The plans for the long-awaited 700,000-square-foot CityPlace Burlington project previously included a restaurant. However, since three Burlington-area business owners bought developer Don Sinex’s ownership stake in the project last May, they’ve walked back the restaurant proposal.

“We kind of dug in and really looked at what were we allowed to build,” Dave Farrington, Jr. said. “What did we want to build? What’s the market telling us now? So, we made some changes along the way — nothing real drastic, but enough that we had to come back (and seek re-permitting).”

Farrington and the other two co-owners of CityPlace spoke Thursday night at a Burlington Wards 2 & 3 Neighborhood Planning Assembly meeting. They said they’ve noticed times are tough for the food service industry, with many establishments struggling to keep staff.

A representative from Freeman French Freeman, the architecture firm working on CityPlace, said new housing will replace the restaurant. He added that the storage areas in both CityPlace buildings for mechanical equipment like the ventilation system will also be removed in favor of more apartments.

“The thing that got us there was changing over to all-electric buildings, so we’re trying to be very environmentally responsible,” Jesse Robbins said. “We just didn’t need any of that mechanical space. There’s been such advances in equipment since the project was conceived that we’re able to just give all that space back to residential use.”

The CityPlace developers are also seeking gold status from the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design certification program for green real estate. The program is sometimes called ‘LEED’ for short.

“Yeah, we’re using a locally-manufactured product called Glavel,” Robbins said. “It’s recycled glass for insulation underneath those slabs (of wood forming the frame. This is) only the second place in the U.S. that makes it; it comes from Essex.”

Pine Street and Saint Paul Street will still be reconnected as part of the development. The construction of the now-demolished former Burlington Town Center mall disconnected the two downtown streets in the mid-1970s.

“The whole project will be completed in the fall of 2025 with the roads complete and open,” Farrington said. “That’s our deadline with the city; everybody’s agreed to it and we’re right on schedule.”

The south building, along Bank Street, is expected to be ready for occupancy before that last phase of construction is complete in about two and a half years.