The Kansas City Plan Commission on Tuesday recommended rezoning for what would be the largest redevelopment proposal in the East Crossroads.

Indianapolis-based Milhaus LLC plans a $65 million mixed-use project that would include five buildings on about 4.3 acres, with four of the buildings new construction. The site is bound by 19th Street to the north, 20th Street to the south, Oak Street to the west and Cherry Street to the east. Locust Street runs through the property.

Four buildings, each four or five stories tall, will house 338 market-rate apartments — 31 "micro apartments," 88 studios, 141 one-bedrooms and 79 two-bedrooms. The site will include a four-story, 336-space parking garage, giving the project 396 total parking spaces, with street parking.

The fifth building will become a restaurant with outdoor seating to the north. It's a partial renovation, partial deconstruction of the one-story Motor Freight Building, which was built in 1948. Including the restaurant, the project will have just less than 15,000 square feet of retail.

John McGurk, who joined Milhaus two months ago as vice president of development for the Kansas City market, said the developer hopes to start on the project in the fourth quarter. Milhaus acts as its own general contractor and is using both DRAW Architecture and Dwell.

The project is aimed at attracting young working professionals. Each building will have a different, but cohesive, design that matches the aesthetic of the Crossroads. The complex will include a dog-walking area, a pool and a courtyard. McGurk said the project also has small stylistic touches, such as a pergola in the courtyard to be constructed with trusses from the Motor Freight building.

"We'll reuse those to kind of bring some of the historic elements of the site back to the new buildings," he said.

The city planning staff expressed overall support for the project, and Milhaus has been working with the city on suggested revisions, such as adding screening to the parking garage to make it more visually appealing.

The Plan Commission approved rezoning the site from a manufacturing designation to urban redevelopment. The recommendation will go to City Council for final approval at an undetermined later date.

The first of three phases of the project will take about 18 months, McGurk said, with the entire project completed in about two and a half years.

Milhaus bought the property from Block Real Estate Services LLC earlier this year. The site once was pitched as a potential location for a downtown baseball stadium.

Milhaus also is working on the $80 million Gallerie mixed-use development between Crown Center and Union Hill and a smaller mixed-use project at 27th Street and Troost Avenue.