Los Angeles-based real estate firm Avant Development has unveiled renderings for a proposed residential-retail complex in Chinatown.

The project, which was filed with the Department of City Planning in August, is slated for a .79-acre site at the corner of Hill and Ord Streets.  The property, which is currently vacant, was the longtime home of the Velvet Turtle restaurant.

Avant has proposed the construction of a seven-story, 250,000-square-foot building with 162 residential units and approximately 5,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space.  The mixed-use structure would also sit atop a two-and-a-half-level underground parking garage.

Renderings of the project, which is being designed by Togawa Smith Martin, portray a contemporary building wrapped with exterior balconies.

Avant is targeting a groundbreaking date in Fall 2017.

The podium-type building fits the mold of several recent developments that have come to Chinatown, including Blossom Plaza, the Jia Apartments and the La Plaza Cultura Village.