A familiar retail building along Eighth Street on the city’s west side would be torn down to make way for an apartment complex as developers continue to eye Colorado Springs for more multifamily housing.

Blackburn Communities of Oxford, Miss., the multifamily development arm of the Blackburn Group, has submitted a proposal to city government officials that shows it plans to construct three, four-story buildings with 294 apartments on 8 acres on the east side of 8th Street, between Costilla Street and Moreno Avenue.

The apartment complex, to be called Junction on 8th, would be the second for Blackburn in the area; it also developed the 301-unit Polaris Junction at the Polaris Pointe mixed-use project in northern Colorado Springs.

Blackburn’s west-side project calls for a former Walmart store, where national retailers Hobby Lobby and Office Depot have operated for several years, to be demolished to make way for a 134-unit apartment building, according to the company’s proposal.

Two other buildings of 72 and 88 units would follow the initial building and be constructed on property used for parking.

Other nearby businesses — including an AutoZone auto parts store, a Texas Roadhouse restaurant, a Sonic drive-in and a multitenant building that houses a Jersey Mike’s Subs shop, a T-Mobile store and Edible Arrangements, a fruit and candy gift outlet — aren’t part of Blackburn’s apartment project, the company’s proposal shows.

Junction on 8th would have detached garages, a pool, landscaping and separate outdoor areas for each building, among other amenities, according to the proposal.

Blackburn is seeking city government approval of a development plan that lays out project details. A timetable included in the proposal shows the project would begin in the second quarter of 2025 and be completed in the third quarter of 2026.

Blackburn officials weren’t immediately available for comment.

Eighth Street is a busy business corridor, with strip centers, standalone retailers, restaurants, service stations and convenience stores, among other uses.

The Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region is set back off Eighth Street, while a Walmart Supercenter opened in 1996 and replaced the retailer’s original store that closed that same year. A 90-room Cambria hotel is planned on a vacant parcel south of the Junction on 8th site.

“This project looks to build upon and enhance the surrounding neighborhood, providing much needed housing in a commercial business rich area,” a consultant said in documents submitted to the city on Blackburn’s behalf.

Hobby Lobby is in the midst of plans to move to the Broadmoor Towne Center shopping complex, southeast of Nevada Avenue and Southgate Road; a date for the relocation isn’t known. Hobby Lobby took out a building permit in December to remodel a vacant Broadmoor Towne Center storefront, according to Pikes Peak Regional Building Department records.

Office Depot didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment.

Blackburn’s project comes at a time when industry experts have said there’s a strong demand for apartment living on the part of young people and empty nesters.

Likewise, housing advocates have said the Pikes Peak region needs more housing of all types; the local population continues to grow and the Colorado Demography Office has projected the Colorado Springs metro-area population will hit 1 million people in 2045.

Still, some multifamily experts have warned the apartment market is in danger of being overbuilt — at least, at the moment.

A recent Pikes Peak Regional Building Department estimate said 3,058 apartments were completed and opened to renters in 2023, and nearly 8,900 more units are under construction and will be added to the area’s multifamily inventory this year and beyond.

That influx likely has contributed to more empty apartments and cooling rents, industry experts have said.

In the fourth quarter of last year, Colorado Springs’ apartment vacancy rate rose to 7.5%, a full percentage point higher than the fourth quarter of 2022 and roughly double from early 2021, according to a report by 1876 Analytics, an affiliate of Denver-based Apartment Appraisers & Consultants.

Rents, meanwhile, slipped to an average of $1,456 a month in the fourth quarter, down $23 from the same period a year earlier, the report showed.