ELMIRA, N.Y. (WENY)-- A former school in Elmira could be turned into apartments. The city council applied for a multimillion-dollar grant to help make that happen. 

The City Council applied for a state grant through Restore New York.  The funds will help the new owner of the ginormous Booth School building on Davis and West Second Street.

The owner is looking to give the former school that has really just been sitting there vacant a second life as apartments. 

The plan is to transform the school into a fifty-one-unit apartment building. Councilperson Brent Stermer sponsored this redevelopment project. He says there is a continued need in the community for market rate and low to moderate rentals as well as many other types of housing.

"We're going to have more apartments here. We're going to have more people living in this neighborhood, and that's what we really want. We want more people living downtown. The more we can convert properties that aren't necessarily housing. So we can find warehouses, or schools if they can be converted it really is the job of your municipality to help you develop something that large," Stermer said.

For roughly ten years the building has temporarily served different roles. It has been vacated for a year and at this point is starting to get run down  Stermer explained how excited he is to see his childhood school being re-purposed. This will be a huge investment in the neighborhood and sends a strong message to the community.

"To take a school that has been used, not used, vacant, it's just basically really kind of sat in that neighborhood. I went to that school as a child so I'm really excited and happy. We are going to have some commercial spaces in there, but those 51 apartments to be market-rate apartments, it's going to allow more people to get into that neighborhood," Stermer said.

The City council was looking for public feedback regarding this project however no one commented at Monday evening's meeting. We're told that many people in the community support it. 

The city expects to hear in the next two months whether or not the state will grant them the funds.