A developer has plans to buy Asheville’s iconic Flatiron Building and turn it into a hotel.

The historic building at 20 Battery Park Ave., which was put up for sale by its owners earlier this year with a $16 million price tag, has not been sold. No official plans have been submitted to city offices for review.

But Steven Lee Johnson, a member of the Asheville Downtown Commission, told the commission during its regular monthly meeting on Friday that the board’s design committee had reviewed basic plans for the Flatiron Building hotel project during an Aug. 24 meeting.

The committee saw sketches and talked about sidewalks, the use of public spaces outside the building and the possibility of reducing the width of Battery Park Avenue to add a bike lane, Johnson said.

Remodeling the historic building built in 1927 and changing its use from office space to a hospitality use would require a rezoning request, one that would go before the Asheville Planning & Zoning Commission and ultimately to Asheville City Council for final approval.

A spokesman for the company that manages the building said back in March that the time was right to see if there were any potential new owners interested in the building, one of the most unique structures in a city known for its outstanding downtown architecture.

The group that owns the building now bought it in 1985 for $440,000, according to property tax records. The nine-story structure is home to a popular ground-level coffee shop, while its upper floors are home to dozens of offices used by small business owners and entrepreneurs. There’s a ninth-floor penthouse apartment.