BEVERLY — By spring 2018, Windover Development is planning to open yet another Apartment complex, this time at 480 Rantoul St., an empty, neglected tract of land that used to be home to a Friendly's restaurant.

Similar to Windover's other apartment complexes, this one would be mixed use as well — 1,900 square feet of Retail Space is planned for the ground floor, while the top four stories would include 90 apartments, broken down into 28 two-bedroom units and 62 one-bedroom apartments.

The project is the latest installment in Windover's plans to bring more transit-oriented development to Rantoul Street and surrounding neighborhoods. Shovels are in the ground at 131 Rantoul St. — next to the post office — where 72 apartments are going up with retail space on the ground floor. Another 62 apartments are planned for 10-12 Congress St., a vacant swath of land at the foot of the Beverly-Salem bridge.

The company already has two complexes open — 45 units at the Enterprise Apartments and 38 at the Burnham Apartments — both of which are on Rantoul Street. Elsewhere in Beverly, Windover is converting the old McKay School on Balch Street into 32 apartments.

"That far north, that end of Rantoul Street, doesn't have this kind of building...so we still hold that bringing people downtown, bringing residents downtown, is the right thing to do," explained Chris Koeplin, Windover Development's vice president of operations, in regard to 480 Rantoul.

Koeplin said permitting should be complete by October with work on the site beginning by the end of the year. It would take roughly 16 months to complete the building. Windover hopes the complex will be open in two years.

The property is also situated midway between the Beverly Depot and Montserrat commuter rail stations, Koeplin added. Each station is just over a half-mile away.

The development is a joint venture between Windover and the property's current owner, Dinart Serpa, owner of numerous Dunkin' Donut franchises in the area. The two parties have an agreement for the site, Koeplin said.

A special permit is required because the plan doesn't meet the city's regulations as far as having 75 percent of the project residential and 25 percent retail.

"I understand the 25 percent can be a challenge," Mayor Michael Cahill said. "We want to make sure that there's enough retail because mixed-use development is a positive in the downtown."

Both Cahill and city community development director Aaron Clausen said they may accept less retail space, but the exact amount will be determined as conversations move forward.

Each of Beverly's main streets — Cabot and Rantoul — are more than a mile long, according to Clausen.

"That's a large downtown," he said.

The property, a little over an acre in size, has been vacant for almost a decade, Cahill noted. Previous development plans, which never came to fruition, would have created a shopping mall at the site with three buildings split between retail and offices. The conceptual renderings for those plans are actually still on display at the site on a "For Lease" sign.

"We want to ensure that the design of what they (Windover) build is a positive addition to the neighborhood," the mayor said. "We look forward to partnering with them on it. They have built some very high-quality housing already."

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