Xerxes Agassi returned to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission with a new mixed-use development proposal for the former Educomp building at 4 State Road in Vineyard Haven.

In 2022, the commission voted 10-6 to deny without prejudice Mr. Agassi’s previous application to develop the 1929 brick building with 14 residential condominiums of one, two or three bedrooms each and three office condos.

Last week, Mr. Agassi told commissioners he has been working with MVC housing planner Laura Silber to arrive at a housing mix that includes income-limited and workforce housing that was not part of the original application. He is now proposing to make one one-bedroom unit available to tenants making no more than 80 per cent of the area median income, and another to those making no more than 150 per cent of the median.

Eight other residences would be designated for year-round, locally-employed Islanders, with rents proportional to their incomes, Mr. Agassi said at the commission’s March 21 meeting.

He would like to lease these units to employers like Vineyard Wind and Martha’s Vineyard Hospital that have been struggling to hire and keep staff amid the Island housing crunch, he added.

The new application also includes five units of affordable housing, available for 10 years, at another building Mr. Agassi owns on William street.

“That’s 12 [additional] bedrooms,” he said. “I feel comfortable saying this is a very generous [housing] offer.”

Mr. Agassi is also proposing four market-rate apartments at the State Road site. Short-term rentals would be permitted in those units, he added.

A year ago, the Tisbury select board voted 2-0-1 to support the plan, while Main street merchant and Vineyard Haven Business Association president Elaine Barse spoke in its favor at last week’s commission hearing.

“I think this is a great use of that space,” Ms. Barse said.

The proposed redevelopment will require gutting the interior of the structure, originally built for New England Telephone, and enlarging it from 7,920 square feet to 13,062 square feet, with most of the addition to the rear of the property. Two dozen parking spaces are also part of the plan.

The hearing will continue in April.

Among other business last week, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission agreed to review a proposal from New England Wind to bring undersea power cables to the Island, and quickly approved Vineyard Wind’s offer to provide $400,000 for a new park in Vineyard Haven in lieu of building an observation tower on town land next to its terminal on Beach Road.