SAN JOSE — Developers have fine-tuned plans for the Cambrian Park Plaza village, a major redevelopment of a southwest San Jose retail center, and the project would retain one current feature: its familiar carousel.

If approved and built, the project would replace the aging Cambrian Plaza shopping center at Union and Camden avenues with new hotels, offices, shops, restaurants, entertainment and residential units.

But the popular carousel feature at the front of the existing retail center won’t vanish.

“They are keeping the carousel, and we have made it very clear that the carousel must be retained,” said Jennifer Piozet, a city planner.

“The village plan has evolved in response to input from the community, city staff and market feedback,” said Carrie Murray, a spokeswoman for Houston-based Weingarten Realty, the project’s principal developer.

The primary change: Weingarten wants the project to be more like downtown Los Gatos and downtown Campbell, and it borrowed some concepts from the Cupertino Main Street project.

“The design now includes much more open space, including a town square and plazas surrounded by shop retail for restaurants and entertainment to create community gathering opportunities,” Murray said.

San Jose planners indicated that at least some city residents like the village concept.

“Some people are supportive of a mixed-use urban area, a village, if you will,” Piozet said.

The two hotels would total 238 rooms and both would be six stories, with one offering 140 rooms and the other 98.

The retail and entertainment element of the project would total 109,000 square feet.

A total of 344 residential units, including 280 apartments and 64 townhouses, are planned.

A convalescent home for assisted living is expected to total 100,000 square feet.

Other key components are 1.6 acres of open space that would include a town square and public park.

The proposed development is at the beginning of the city approval process. San Jose also must annex the site from Santa Clara County, but that is expected to be relatively straightforward.

“Our goal is to create a unique mixed-use village for the local community that recognizes the history of the center and supports the future needs of residents and businesses in the area as well as wider City planning objectives,” Weingarten Realty stated on a website devoted to the project.

The developers said they greatly appreciated the decades-long focus that Cambrian Park Plaza has provided for the adjacent neighborhoods and southwest San Jose. Weingarten said its latest design took that traditional importance of the retail complex into account in devising the project.

“We’ve included a town square along with many large plazas and a park where the iconic carousel will be relocated,” Weingarten stated on the website.

Ultimately, the project is expected to offer numerous spots where people can gather.

“The walking village plan includes shop retail, restaurants and entertainment opportunities focused on a town square along with many plazas and green space for eating and gathering, farmers’ markets, and community events,” according to the Weingarten website.