A rendering shows WinnDevelopment's planned redevelopment of the Worcester Boys & Girls Club building. Image courtesy of Cutler Design

Worcester officials have approved a proposal from Boston-based WinnCompanies to redevelop the vacant former Boys & Girls Club building at 16 Salisbury St. in the city’s downtown.

The proposal will add a 5-story building connected to the existing, 1920s-vintage club building over a traffic bypass tunnel. A total of 80 apartments for seniors, with rents on 4 in every 5 units set at affordable levels, will be created, according to filings with the city’s Planning Board.

Amenities will include community kitchens, a gym converted from the club building’s old gym and “library reading rooms.” Parking will be largely provided off-site via leases at other downtown parking lots and spots already built at the company’s next-door Voke Lofts apartment building.

As part of its proposal, WinnCompanies also promised to convert some of the grander spaces in the old Boys & Girls Club into public gathering spaces to be programmed by Preservation Worcester. The developer has also promised to maintain and redesign the city’s World War I memorial, which sits in front of the club building.

The club building has been vacant since 2006, and is subject to historic preservation restrictions.

The Worcester Planning Board voted to OK the project last week, the Worcester Business Journal reported.