NEWARK -- Mayor Ras Baraka says Newark has plenty of room for more residents, and the developers at Paramount Properties are eager to help fill it, with their projects and even themselves.

Baraka was speaking at a ribbon cutting ceremony on Wednesday for Elizabeth-based Paramount's first completed project in Newark, the conversion of a largely unused former industrial building into 15 apartments and three retail stores at street level, in a rapidly redeveloping downtown neighborhood.

"We've had ribbon cuttings, opened up new spaces, reinvented these spaces, transformed these places, made them available to new Newarkers and the old Newarkers as well, because we have room," Baraka said.

"We have room in our city. We have a lot of room," Baraka added. "Newark used to be a city with about a half a million people. We have about 300,000 at this point, so we have room for at least 200,000 more folks. So, bring them in as quickly as you can."

The developer, Maurice Levy, said the company paid $1.5 million for the Halsey Street building, then put another $2.5 million into gutting it and rebuilding the interior.

"These are the tougher ones, where you're taking an existing building for a different use and it has to be retrofitted," said Levy, whose company has purchased 15 properties around Newark over the past two years.

Levy has not only adopted Newark as the new focus of his business, but also as his new home, with plans to move into the Ironbound neighborhood from Elizabeth.

The five-story, yellow brick building stands at the corner of Raymond Boulevard and Halsey Street, three blocks west of the widely acclaimed Hahne and Company department store site, now completing it conversion to 160 apartments, a Whole Foods supermarket, a Rutgers arts center, and other uses.

Dubbed Halston Flats, the Halsey Street building includes 2- and 3-bedroom apartments ranging from 800 to 1,400 square feet, and renting for $2,000 to $2,500 a month, said Richard Dunn, a Paramount vice president.

A Harvest Table healthy food restaurant and Poke sushi bar already occupy two of the three retail spaces, while a Krauser's convenience store is schedule to open in about a month.

"It's a good location," owner Jagat Parikh said of his fifth Krausers franchise.

High ceilings, exposed brick and heating and air conditioning pipes provide a loft-like feel, with a neon "Yes" mounted above the elevator just inside the main entrance.

"There is power in positivity," said the interior designer, Adele Schachner.

City Councilwoman Gayle Cheneyfield Jenkins said she was so taken by the restoration job that she could not recall what the building looked like before. Councilman Eddie Osborne, a former construction worker who is now an official with the Laborers International Union of North America, congratulated Paramount on "a job well done."

Dunn said the building was constructed sometime between 1894 and 1904, and used by the Columbian Steam Laundry company to manufacture and launder shirts.

Adding to its historic nature, city officials say the building stands at the site of the original terminus of the Morris Canal, which was later used for the Newark City Subway.

Baraka thanked Paramount father and son Solomon and Maurice Levy for investing in his city, and for having the sensitivity and good sense to usher the city's existing structures into a new era of prosperity after decades of hard times and contraction.

To encourage the Halsey Street project, the city granted Paramount a 20-year deal involving payments in lieu of taxes worth 10 percent of the building's annual gross revenues, said Carmelo Garcia, vice president and chief real estate officer for the Newark Economic Development Corporation.

"These are the anchor projects we've been working on to redevelop these blocks," Garcia said. "All you need is one."

Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook.