CHAPEL HILL - Glen Lennox, the half-century-old neighborhood and shopping center that were the first of their kind in town, could soon be torn down.

Grubb Properties wants to replace the shopping center, apartments and cottages with new office, residential, retail and restaurant space, spokesman Jim Schaafsma said Wednesday night.

If approved, the project would continue the transformation of the eastern entrance to Chapel Hill. The University Inn just up N.C. 54 from Glen Lennox was recently torn down to make way for East 54, a new urban village of luxury condos, shops and dining.

Grubb is planning buildings from two to five stories. Most would be residential, and some could have garages. The project could have parking decks along with surface and on-street parking.

"One approach is, we'd like to make use of as much of the existing street system as we can ... and work with the existing topography of the land, and that would allow us to save more trees, really," Schaafsma said.

The project might have a hotel, and would have "pocket parks" -- green areas between buildings, such as courtyards and mini-parks.

Representatives of the developer met with residents of the neighborhood off Flemington Road and congregants of the Church of the Holy Family, both north of the property, and plan to have more community meetings.

One group they have yet to meet with are the residents of the Glen Lennox apartments and cottages.

"They're our tenants, and we have a special relationship with them," Schaafsma said. "We plan on communicating with them in the near term."

Dorothy Verkerk, a professor of art history at UNC-Chapel Hill and former Town Council member, wrote to her neighborhood e-mailing list his week and encouraged her neighbors to speak up when the developers bring a concept plan to the Town Council this spring. "No matter what your opinions are about the proposed development (for, against, ambivalent), this is the time to stand up and give your two cents worth," she wrote.

She said Grubb Properties had contacted her in the fall about wanting to redevelop the property, and a representative from GGA Architects met with her and a landscape architect neighbor to show them the preliminary plans.

"My concern is Glen Lennox is a unique living opportunity in Chapel Hill. Everyone has a patch of grass in the front and behind. It's more of a community than other, more recent apartment complexes built for students," she said Wednesday evening. "My second concern is Glen Lennox has a very strong sentimental value to it. It's just beautifully designed, very thoughtfully done."

Schaafsma said Grubb Properties is doing what the town has been pushing for, "which is utilize the site in a mixed-use fashion and in a way that encourages the use of transit."