Image courtesy of Opechee Construction Corporation

A local development team has filed plans with New Bedford officials to build a new hotel next to the city’s brand-new MBTA commuter rail station.

Westport-based Lafrance Hospitality wants to build a 140-room, dual-branded Hilton Garden Inn/Homewood Inn and Suites hotel at 1 Pearl St., immediately to the station’s north.

The building would replace an existing tire recycling facility, and would be Lafrance’s second hotel in New Bedford, the application states.

The 90,500-square-foot hotel appears to be the first development proposal to sprout in a revitalization area laid out by city officials aimed at capitalizing on growth potential created by the new train station, including both tourism-related development and new housing.

The new MBTA train connection links the South Coast city and downtown Boston with 14 trains every weekday in either direction, around half of which are shuttle trains where passengers change from Fall River-bound trains in East Taunton. Total trip time is a round 90 minutes one-way.

The development zone covers several blocks of downtown New Bedford plus a former rail yard to the east of JFK Memorial Highway. The station and Lafrance’s hotel proposal are both located in the latter area.

Buildings up to 100 feet tall are allowed east of the highway, with 65-foot-tall ones allowed in the block immediately to the highway’s west, and 40-foot-tall ones for the first set of parcels immediately behind that.

City officials say a number of the parcels in the redevelopment zone are either vacant or underutilized.

The Lafrance proposal is scheduled to be heard May 9 by the New Bedford Planning Board. It requires site plan review and parking relief, despite generally lower parking limits in the redevelopment zone, thanks to the proposed inclusion of a restaurant in the hotel.