One of Greater Hartford’s most prominent development teams is considering a project that would bring 168 new apartments to Colchester on a vacant industrial property near the town center.

The plan is still in preliminary stages, but the town’s economic development council recently endorsed it for municipal tax abatements after concluding it would add value to Colchester.

The Jasko Zelman LLC partnership’s plan would create three 24-apartment buildings and three 36-apartment buildings, all served by a new loop road that would connect to Norwich Avenue just east of Mill Street.

Avner Krohn’s Jasko Development and Brian Zelman’s Zelman Real Estate are currently building 111 apartments in Bloomfield and are near construction on 470 apartments on the old Showcase Cinemas site in East Hartford.

They are also building 48 luxury apartments on Farmington Avenue in West Hartford.

“Colchester would be a riskier project for us than a Bloomfield or a West Hartford, where there’s already been product established recently that can justify getting the rents and building more units,” Zelman said.

“But in Colchester there’s been a void for a very long time. And this would provide an opportunity for folks who are looking to get away from being homeowners — empty-nesters or retirees,” Zelman said.

The plan is for mostly one- and two-bedroom units, with a small mix of studios and three-bedroom apartments, too.

“This will attract a variety of folks. It’s in proximity to the shoreline, where you have demand for housing that cannot be met. New London has huge demand with the sub base, Pfizer, Electric Boat,” Zelman said.

Colchester is just a half-hour drive from New London, and even less to Norwich, he noted, making it attractive to young professionals working there.

The 16-acre tract they’d build on is owned by S&S Worldwide, which sells children’s games, toys and educational products. S&S is among Colchester’s top taxpayers and employers, and its large Mill Street headquarters is alongside the potential apartment site at 239 Norwich Ave.

Zelman and Krohn said they plan traditional New England architecture for the complex’s three-story buildings, and envision a walkable community linked to businesses in the center of town.

The developers are seeing a 10-year tax phase-in, with a full exemption in the first three years followed by a steadily diminishing abatement across the next seven. Once the full tax is billed in year 11, the developers calculate Colchester would get $850,000 annually based on current assessments and the current tax rate.

“This deal is predicated on us getting the abatement we applied for,” said Zelman, who said the project is still feasible despite rising interest rates, inflation and continuing supply chain problems in the construction industry.

“We started working on this in the spring, and we knew if things continued to change for the worse the project would still be viable with the abatement,” he said.

Partner Avner Krohn has landed significant tax abatements in New Britain, Bloomfield and East Hartford.

He and Zelman have said repeatedly that bringing large-scale, modern housing projects requires municipalities to forgo part of their revenue in early years.

Typically, the alternative is to lose development to neighboring towns while receiving little or no revenue on vacant land, they contend. The vacant Colchester property, for instance, generates less than $15,000 a year in taxes. By the fourth year after construction, Zelman said, the apartment complex would begin paying more than 10 times that, followed by steady increases in later years.

Developers also argue that building desirable housing brings more prospective customers to local businesses, and generally helps build a town’s future.

Colchester’s economic development commission unanimously recommended the town approve the project for its C-TIP tax abatement program. But selectmen haven’t yet approved necessary modifications to the C-TIP rules; if they do, the commission expects to hold another vote of approval.

Ultimately, the selectmen will decide whether to put the tax abatement request to a town meeting. If that passes, the developers would then seek zoning approvals before starting construction.

While it’s too soon for the developers to discuss specific rent forecasts, their plan is to lease 90% of the apartments at market rate and 10% at the state’s definition of “affordable.”

That 10% would count toward Colchester’s bank of affordable housing; the state government is pressing all communities to maintain at least 10% of their housing as affordable. Currently, Colchester’s affordable housing rate is 8.7%.

“Since 2002, Colchester has lost a number of affordable housing units,” according to the town’s affordable housing plan. “Colchester had over 11.7% of their housing stock as protected affordable housing units in 2002. Due to the increase in the overall number of market-rate units and a loss of affordable units, the overall percentage has decreased in the past 20 years.”