A Nashville developer is pressing forward with plans for an apartment complex near FedExForum despite failing to gain a planning board’s endorsement to close off a street for the project.

Elmington Capital this week applied for a building permit that estimates construction of the four-acre, garden-style apartment community will cost more than $16 million.

The site fronts the west side of Danny Thomas, from Vance on the south to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue on the north.

Splitting the site is the minor street Pontotoc Avenue. Elmington asks that the city close 92 yards of Pontotoc, from Turley on the west to Danny Thomas on the east.

Not having Pontotoc divide the complex would allow Elmington to design a safer, more appealing and walkable-friendly apartment community, the developer had stated in its application.

The Land Use Control Board unanimously rejected the request in March, essentially recommending that the City Council not approve vacating the right of way.

Even though the City Council has not addressed the issue, Elmington Capital has forged ahead in two ways. It has submitted alternative plans to the Office of Planning & Development, one with Pontotoc closed and the other with the complex flanking the street. And the developer applied for the construction permit.

“Even if Pontotoc is not allowed to be closed by the City Council, the developer can still construct the project leaving Pontotoc open,” Chip Saliba, Land Use Controls manager for the Office of Planning & Development, said by email on Thursday.

“We have had submitted to us a preliminary site plan that provides a layout leaving Pontotoc open and a layout with Pontotoc closed. The developer is just waiting for the Council to act on the Pontotoc Street closing before OPD formally reviews their site plan with either Pontotoc closed or Pontotoc open,” Saliba said.

One downside of closing a public street is the reduction of route options for motorists and pedestrians.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development would help finance the affordable apartments.

The apartments will be the fifth apartment complex Elmington has built or is building, mostly on the edges of Downtown. The others are Crescent Bluffs at Florida and Crump, Uptown Flats, Second Street Flats at Second and St. Martin, and Patterson Flats at Third and G.E. Patterson.