TMG Partners and capital partner Essex Property Trust plan to start construction on a $54 million, 190-unit apartment project in Emeryville that is the first residential component of the firm's major revamp of the Emeryville Public Market.

The project, designed by Steinberg Architects of San Francisco, is at 64th and Christie streets on a site that is part of the existing 14-acre Public Market site that TMG wants to transform into a dense, pedestrian-oriented neighborhood.

"The project is a good example of dense urban infill," said Denise Pinkston, a partner with TMG overseeing the Public Market project. "It's a great time to start an apartment project."

In the last year, TMG has spruced up some of the existing buildings in the Public Market with new facades, decor, landscaping and furnishings and added new retailers including Guitar Center and Urban Outfitters.

TMG's broader vision involves refurbishing and constructing about 1.5 million square feet of office, retail and residential space.

Existing development on the site includes office space and the 200,000-square-foot Public Market, at 5959 Shellmound St., that houses an international food court, a movie theater and other retail space.

The 64th and Christie apartments are the first new construction to move forward and is scheduled for completion in two years. The site has two vacant industrial buildings on it that will be demolished.

Pinkston said the second phase will involve a 200,000-square-foot mixed-use building on a 2.5 acre-site currently used for surface parking.

By the time the project is totally redeveloped during the next 25 years, all the existing parking will disappear.

"We're undoing the damage we did by getting rid of the paved over parking lots," Pinkston said.

The developers secured a $3.1 million grant from the City of Emeryville Successor Agency to build affordable units for very low-income families and a $5 million California Pollution Control Finance Authority Infill Grant to clean up contamination on the site.

The Public Market project received a California Catalyst Communities Pilot Project grant of $1.35 million to pay for electric vehicle charging stations, a solar carport, models of recycling and composting, environmental education and a science display on the project's green features.

"We are pleased to provide a high quality, transit oriented infill rental community in an underserved market meeting the needs of today's urban tenant," said John Eudy, executive vice president of development for Essex Property Trust.