A former refinery in North Long Beach will soon be cleaned up and transformed into a modern warehouse and office space.

The Planning Commission voted at its Thursday, Sept. 5, meeting to approve a plan to decommission and remove the old Edgington Oil refinery, at Artesia and Paramount boulevards, in North Long Beach. In its place, developers will build a 416,000-square-foot industrial warehouse with 21,000 square feet of office space.

The refinery has been out of use since 2012.

But, the developers told commissioners Thursday, neighbors who fear the scheme would simply trade one eyesore for another need not worry: The design, with concrete panels in varying hues of gray and reflective blue-glazed glass, is intended to appear as an attractive office building.

“We made a significant attempt to incorporate a lot more materials,” the project’s lead architect, Bridget Herdman, said, “high-end materials, and better design, than you typically see with a warehouse.”

The plan also calls for a significant amount of landscaping, with 200 trees lining the building’s four sides.

Bridge Development, the project’s builder, put together the plan on spec, so it’s unclear what company will occupy the warehouse once it’s completed.

But the developers said they hope the warehouse will create more than 500 permanent jobs in the area.

Bridge’s development director, Rosendo Solis, said the company would commit to prioritizing local, union labor for the construction process.

But before shovels can hit the ground, the company must work to clean up the soil and groundwater on the site.

Solis said the first phase of that work will be to simply remove everything leftover from the refinery’s operation, and Bridge Development will then move toward remediation — cleaning up any toxins that may seeped into the ground.

The developers are collaborating with the Long Beach Fire Department and the Regional Water Quality Control Board on that work. Solis said the process could take several years.

But, ultimately, Solis and other representatives said, Bridge Development hopes to be a long-term partner with the city to continue improving North Long Beach and the Artesia Boulevard corridor.

In addition to the refinery transformation, Bridge Development is donating $250,000 to local community groups as a gesture of the firm’s commitment to the area.