GARY n Developers who proposed converting the shuttered Sheraton Hotel into a senior housing project and an office/retail complex revealed details of their plan shortly after a news conference on Thursday.

The plan includes 120 apartments for independent seniors, 120 apartments for seniors who need assisted living care, 10 condominiums for anyone who wants to live at the Sheraton, and two floors of businesses, including medical offices and retail stores.

Construction on the project is scheduled to begin in the fall and seniors are expected to be able to move into the renovated ex-hotel in the summer of 2008, said architect Phillip Kupritz and senior housing developer Nachshon Draiman.

Kupritz and Draiman spoke after Gary Mayor Rudy Clay's administration symbolically turned the lights on at the Sheraton, which is adjacent to the City Hall, 401 Broadway, Gary, for the first time in 22 years. Kupritz said afterward that he expects actual cleanup work at the building to begin in 30 to 60 days.

Kupritz, who is on the board of the New Gary Development Group, said that a marketing analysis indicates the plan will work, although other developers have proposed tearing down the hotel and their rebuilding plans failed.

"We need to look at our resources rather than squander them," Kupritz said. "We're at a different time. Twenty years makes a difference."

Kupritz recently converted a downtown Chicago office building that was abandoned for 10 years into a 267-unit condominium complex and helped transform a 14-story abandoned building in Waukegan that was abandoned for even longer into a senior housing development.

He said Thursday he believes the same thing can happen in downtown Gary.

The Sheraton has 14 stories. The bottom two floors and an adjacent building that will be constructed will include 30,000 square feet of offices and stores for residents and the public and an outside atrium for shoppers and office workers. A Starbuck's coffee shop is envisioned.

The top floor will consist of 10 condos, which will cost about $250,000 each to buy.

The centerpiece of the project is the housing for seniors.

The 120 apartments for independent seniors will be 600 square feet and cost $400 to $1,100 per month to rent. The 120 apartments for seniors who need assisted living care will be about 300 square feet and cost about $1,800 per month to rent because medical services are figured into the cost.

There will be no income limitations on residents, and Kupritz and Draiman said the state of Indiana will subsidize many apartments. Typically, Draiman said, seniors pay a minority of the cost and the government pays the rest.

Draiman has built senior complexes in Chicago and the Illinois towns of Burnham, Robbins, and Wilmington. He said the Sheraton plan would have similar provisions for security, emergency medical services, on-site nurses, community dining facilities, and activities rooms.

Seniors whose condition regresses can move from the independent to assisted living sections of the complex. There is also the flexibility of converting more than one apartment into living quarters for a couple.