MONTEREY — A building that was at one time the second biggest bordello on Cannery Row will be getting a face lift that will feature a residential unit above a restaurant.

The bottom floor of the building at 851 Cannery Row is home to Austino’s Patisserie across from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Owner Chris Shake has filed with the Monterey Planning Department for a use permit to build a residential unit on the vacant second floor of the building.

Chris Schmidt, the associate planner on the project, said residential units on Cannery Row are not widespread, but the area is zoned to allow mixed use commercial and residential. The city’s zoning administrator was expected to approve a use permit for the project Thursday afternoon. Zoning administrators are similar to a planning commission but focuses solely on use permits, Schmidt said.

The building has a city designation as an H1 Landmark Historic building.

“We don’t have a lot of residential units on Cannery Row; most are on Foam Street,” he said. “It’s zoned for up to 180 residential units and more and more property owners realize it is a way to utilize unutilized space.”

The demand for housing in Monterey could also generate interest in residential uses, he added.

Shake was flying back to Monterey on Thursday and was not able to comment for this story.

The building’s checkered and lively past was elevated by John Steinbeck, who included it as a frequented fictional establishment by some of the legendary characters of the novel “Cannery Row,” including “Eddie” the bartender and the irrepressible “Mack.”

In reality the building of the 1930s could also be considered mixed use. The bottom floor was a restaurant, bar and kitchen while the top floor served as a brothel from the early to mid-1930s until 1941 when California’s attorney general closed all brothels in the state, according to several books provided by the National Steinbeck Center’s archivist, Lisa Josephs.

The owner was a woman named Flora Woods, but the “proprietor” was a bawdry woman from San Francisco namd Edith Luciani, according to A.L. “Scrap” Lundy’s history, “Real Life on Cannery Row: Real People, Places and Events that Inspired John Steinbeck.” Weighing in at 300 pounds, Luciani ran a restaurant, bar and kitchen on the ground floor and the five-room brothel on the second floor.

The building nearly burned down in November of 1936, but the fire department saved both Wood’s bordello as well as Wing Chong’s grocery next door, according to Bruce Ariss’s history “Sketches from the Steinbeck Era.”

“Bruce Ariss was one of the people who was in Cannery Row’s ‘in’ crowd during Steinbeck’s time in the area,” Josephs said.

In 1958 La Ida’s was leased by Kalisa Moore, called the “Queen of Cannery Row.” While the business was a respectable restaurant and bar, it was no less lively. Moore frequently hosted live music and belly dancing until 2007 when Shake acquired the building. Shake is the owner of Fisherman’s Grotto on the wharf. Moore died in 2009.

One thing is certain, whoever lives in the soon-to-be residential unit will have plenty of stories to tell.