A plan to convert a sprawling residential building on Upper Main street Edgartown into a 19-room inn quickly cleared a hearing at the Martha’s Vineyard Commission Thursday night.

The 4,000-square-foot building at 222 Upper Main Street in the town’s B2 business district was formerly operated as the Arbor Inn. The property was vacant when the current owners purchased the building in 2018. Since then it has been used for about a dozen elder and workforce housing units.

The building is owned by an LLC connected to the real estate investment firm Boldwater Holdings, which also owns the Edgar Inn across the street, as well as at least three other properties on the south side of Upper Main.

The two-phase project aims to renovate the existing building on the property and build a two-story, six-room addition. It was referred to the commission by the Edgartown planning board as a change of use.

The renovated building will revert to an inn and operated as an annex to the Edgar Inn, according to the applicant. Concierge and food services for guests will be located in the Edgar Inn across the street.

The applicant is represented by attorney Geoghan Coogan and architect Chuck Sullivan.

At the hearing Tuesday, commission DRI coordinator Alex Elvin said planning concerns included wastewater, traffic, the character of the addition and affordable housing.

The project would take about a dozen rooms out of the current housing stock, commission staff said.

But Mr. Coogan said the building was formerly an inn and was vacant at the time of the purchase. Applicants have offered to provide two units of offsite workforce housing as mitigation for change of use.

“The applicant’s intention with the building was always to keep it as an inn,” Mr. Coogan said. “In the interim, he had been allowing friends and various businesses . . . to create some places for people to stay. Yes, it did stop being an inn, but the question of it going back to being a 12, 13-unit affordable housing is not really accurate.”

Commission economic development and affordable housing planner Christine Flynn agreed, saying the two units of off-site workforce housing mitigation offered by the applicant was adequate considering the building’s history.

“I would not recommend that the applicant be expected to replace the loss of the 13 rooms,” Ms. Flynn said.

Commissioners closed the public hearing with no public testimony, requesting a written narrative for how guests would navigate street crossings. The written record will remain open until May 24 at 5 p.m.

In other business Thursday, the commission approved the written decision for an 11-unit mixed use development at the site of the old Santander Bank in Tisbury.

Discussion of the commission’s new DRI checklist was tabled until a later date.