Two development partners have been chosen to move forward on Ruggles Place, a previously stalled mixed-use project that “will transform lower Roxbury into a vital retail center and cultural destination,” city officials said.

The city redevelopment authority’s board voted Thursday to allow developer Elma Lewis Partners, LLC and a new partner, Feldco Development Corp., 18 months to secure financing and start the project, projected presently to cost $308 million. The cost figure could rise to earlier estimates of $400 million depending on what changes between now and the final design planning.

The plan to transform an empty eight-acre plot on Tremont Street across from police headquarters has been envisioned as the new hub of the city’s black community and is a component of the Roxbury Strategic Master Plan, which was adopted seven years ago.

The new development team has unveiled an altered proposal from the project’s initial, 2007 plan. The new design is expected by developers to generate more revenue and create 2,398 permanent post-construction jobs – 1,100 more than the proposal announced four years ago.

However, the new plan is still subject to the Article 80 process, and that plan has yet to be officially submitted to the city redevelopment authority for review, officials said.

The new proposal calls for a sizeable amount of large retail space. The original plan included no large retail space. Housing space in the new proposal would be built, but not during construction’s first phase. The size of the housing space would be contingent on market factors.

The plan also calls for a parking garage nearly twice the size of the original proposal. A theater has been scrapped, and a fine arts school that had been included in the 2007 project, along with $350,000 in annual scholarships, is now a contingent component of phase two. Other aspects of the project – including office space, small retail a museum of Afro-American artists – are relatively unchanged from the original plan.

After Elma Lewis Partners was selected to build Ruggles Place in 2007, city officials allowed the developer’s designation to lapse and began exploring new ideas for the site. The city said the developer did not move fast enough, nor did it prove it could produce a financially viable project. The development company argued they did not have sufficient time to develop the project.

In spring 2009, outcry from Roxbury residents who passionately supported the project, caused the redevelopment authority to reconsider and the city branch gave Elma Lewis Partners 18 months to revive its development process and find financial partners, which the developer has in Feldco.

The Boston Globe / by Matt Rocheleau