After a decade-long planning process that weathered neighborhood resistance and the economic recession, local developers recently broke ground on the first phase of a large residential mixed-use project in Midtown San Jose.

Green Republic LLLP, a joint venture between Republic Urban Properties and Swenson Development, held a groundbreaking event Dec. 21 at the 8.25-acre site on the corner of Auzerais Avenue and Sunol Street, where demolition and construction of an underground parking garage began last month.

The property, adjacent to Del Monte Park, was previously owned by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and served as a bus lot. Green Republic bought 5.25 acres from VTA in 2006, but the $18 million sale wasn’t finalized until 2013. Green Republic later bought the remaining three acres from a private owner for $2 million, giving the project a footprint of about one city block.

When finished, the so-called Silver project will include three buildings varying from four to 11 stories with a total of 800 market-rate housing units–521 rental apartments and the rest possibly condos–and 25,000 square feet of ground-level retail along West San Carlos Street.

Included in the project will be a range of high-end amenities such as game and exercise rooms, swimming pools, dog parks and multiple indoor and outdoor lounge areas, according to Green Republic president Michael Van Every.

In addition, it will have solar power and other energy-saving architectural features, plus 1,040 parking spaces.

No retail tenants are lined up yet, but Van Every said “the best analogy is what’s up the street at Meridian at Midtown”–banks, restaurants and possibly medical offices.

Up until the project was unanimously approved by VTA and city officials in 2010, former District 6 Councilman Ken Yeager and many neighbors opposed it. They said the project was too dense and its buildings too tall for that location, and that it should have more retail space.

But city officials including former planning director Joe Horwedel, who died earlier this year, said those are all good reasons to support the project.

“This was a project that Joe and planning very much supported because of its location and proximity to transit and mostly its density,” Van Every said in an interview. “We created as much density as we could in this location.”

It will take six to eight years to fully build out the estimated $400 million project, Van Every said. The first phase will take “a good 25 months or so, weather permitting,” and won’t be ready for occupancy until about 2019, he added.

“The next phase we believe will start in June or July 2017 and then shortly thereafter, probably 2018, we’ll start phase three,” he added.