A new eatery – by a familiar restaurant family – will anchor a redevelopment project on a prime downtown Traverse City corner.

Paul and Amanda Danielson of Trattoria Stella at The Village at Grand Traverse Commons have confirmed plans to open their second restaurant – this time smack in the heart of downtown – at the southwest corner of Front and Cass streets.

This is the second attempt to redevelop the high-profile commercial property. A proposal by local developer Thom Darga that included a new headquarters for Cherry Republic and approximately $2 million in brownfield redevelopment dollars languished after Cherry Republic pulled out of the project.

This time around, Tim Pulliam and Steve Morse of Keen Technical Solutions are planning a green reconstruction project after buying the building last August. The firm, which provides energy audits to businesses that want to cut their energy usage and costs, is now ready to show by example.

“We want to highlight that it’s possible to rehabilitate and add space onto an historic building in an intelligent manner, energy-efficiently and – most importantly – still come in under budget,” says Pulliam.

The duo plans to add 11,000 square feet to the site, bringing the total square footage to nearly 20,000. They’ll add one two-story structure to the corner of Front and Cass and infill the alley behind Cherry Hill Boutique with another that will extend over to the building occupied by Passageways Travel.

The Danielsons’ restaurant will occupy the first and second floors on the southwest corner of Front and Cass, as well as the first floor on the alley side.

“We’re going to take what we know how to do from Stella and make it more approachable,” says co-owner Paul Danielson, though he’s not ready to release further details. “We don’t want to compete with Stella, we just want to make it more fun for downtown.”

Tenants Cherry Hill and Passageways will remain unaffected. However, Great Lakes Bath & Body will need to relocate in the fall when construction is slated to begin. No construction plans have been submitted to the city as of yet, but Keen officials say they don’t anticipate any major roadblocks. Cornerstone Architects is doing the design.

Construction of both the building and restaurant is slated for a May 31, 2014 completion date.

Gayle Neu also contributed to this story.