NATCHEZ — The Natchez Planning Commission approved plans Thursday that will kick-start the renovations for the historic but empty former Natchez Eola Hotel building on Main Street.

The plans in question were for the ground floor of the hotel, which even after renovation will be essentially the same as it was at the time of its December 2014 closure.

The hotel’s owners plan to renovate the upper floors into upscale senior apartments for seniors, but the approval Thursday addressed only the ground level of the building, which will have a public dining area, a commercial rental space in the former bar area and possibly an open art gallery in the lobby area.

Construction plans for the upper floors will be subject to review by planning staff, but won’t require planning or preservation commission approval, Interim City Planner Riccardo Giani said.

The patio area on Pearl Street will also be open to the public, because “that is part of our landmark, trademark hotel,” said attorney Tony Heidelberg, who was at the meeting representing the building’s owners.

While the current plan is for the owner’s group to operate the public dining area, if a viable alternative presents itself, another company may do so in that space, Heidelberg said.

No timeline has been set for when construction will start, but that should become clear now that the plans have been officially approved, he said.

The commission’s approval was made contingent on the changing of language on the application documents, which had some of the public spaces labeled as resident space.

This was the third time the plans have been up for approval.

The planning commission had previously denied the application because it did not allow enough public access on the first floor, a requirement for all buildings in the historic business district.

After the planning commission heard the owners’ appeal in February, the commission denied the appeal because it was based on the verbal pitch of a new plan that was not shown in the application documents.

The Natchez Board of Aldermen later declined to hear a second appeal, but asked Heidelberg to present the revised plans at the next meeting.

Giani said Thursday he felt that the new plans conform with the requirement for more public access.

Though the plans approved Thursday did not address the upper floors of the building, Heidelberg addressed questions from the commission about the proposal, which he said would include a combination of sale and lease apartments.

The sale prices will be determined by how much renovations cost, Heidelberg said.

The upper floors will be converted to 40-plus apartments, he said, and while they will cater to seniors it shouldn’t be thought of as a seniors’ or assisted living home.

Instead, it will be advertised regionally and nationally to attract people of a certain age to Natchez, or to bring in people who live in the area who have always wanted to live downtown but not had the opportunity to do so.

“It is not a senior living facility, it is an age appropriate facility for those in a certain age range,” he said. “I’m 49, and I have a different idea of what I want to be doing out and about than people of other ages. You don’t necessarily want a 29-year-old on the third floor of that building.”

Heidelberg also said he wanted to make it clear that the rumor it will be Section 8 housing is exactly that — a rumor.

“Not that there’s anything wrong with Section 8 housing, but this property is designed to turn a profit,” he said. “People don’t invest in something like this to take a look at it and say, ‘That looks pretty.’”

Virginia-based attorney Robert Lubin bought the hotel — which he had previously owned in the 1990s and was involved in the location of the Magnolia Bluffs Casino to Natchez — in 2014.