It was early 2006 when developers Phil Hugh and John Economou first sat down with the owners of Bloomfield's Don Allen Auto City and discussed what to do with one of the most valuable plots of real estate in Pittsburgh's East End.

"They wanted to look at other options," Mr. Economou said. But, also, "they wanted to do right by the city of Pittsburgh."

The result, 19 months later, is that Mr. Hugh and Mr. Economou now have an agreement to assume majority control of the dealership's seven-acre, three-block swath at the nexus of Shadyside, Bloomfield and East Liberty. Their plan, unveiled yesterday, is to tear down the Don Allen buildings and fill the space along Baum Boulevard and Liberty Avenue with a mix of townhouses, condominiums, a 120-room hotel, and 700,000 square feet of office, medical and retail space.

As proposed, the project is expected to cost $220 million-$230 million and take as long as four years. Pending city approval, it would become the biggest mixed-use development currently under way in the East End, bigger even than Walnut Capital Partners' $113 million transformation of an old Penn Avenue Nabisco bakery into a shopping-residential-hotel complex. It joins a slew of other developments to hit that part of the city, from the Hillman Cancer Center on Baum to Eastside, a Centre Avenue retail complex anchored by organic grocer Whole Foods.

For Mr. Hugh and Mr. Economou, both principals with the development team known as DOC-Economou, this is their second major project in the Pittsburgh area. Just last month the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority sold DOC-Economou an acre in the SouthSide Works complex on the South Side for a $48 million luxury hotel-condo-retail project scheduled to open in summer 2009.

Their South Side complex will be built with private money, but Mr. Hugh and Mr. Economou acknowledge they hope to secure public financing to assist with Bloomfield, although they were not willing to specify what type or how much.

"We certainly want to have open lines with local and state officials to see what options are there to produce the best possible project," said Mr. Hugh, who is originally from Fairchance, Fayette County.

DOC-Economou is a joint venture of two separate real estate operators, Fort Myers, Fla.-based Development Opportunity Corp., founded in 2005, and Economou Partners, a firm based in the Chicago area and founded in 1989. The joint venture also has an office in Pine. The venture's recent projects in other parts of the country include The Residences on Water, a mixed-use project in Milwaukee slated to open this spring and the renovation of a Fort Myers Holiday Inn. DOC, on its own Web site, also lists a Hotel Indigo and Dunkin' Donuts in Fort Myers, along with a hotel in Slippery Rock.

Mr. Hugh, who attended Allegheny College and grew up near Uniontown, said he "always wanted to come back to the city. Pittsburgh is a special place and there is a lot of opportunity in the city."

His connection to the Voelker family, which controls the Don Allen dealership, was through his attorney Brenda Yurick, who also happened to represent the Voelkers. Their first meeting was 19 months ago, and last week the family informed 80 employees that the dealership, in the Voelkers' hands for 50 years, would be sold due to a crush of competition from suburban dealers.

Despite the sale, though, the Voelker family will become a minority partner in the new development, confirmed Mr. Hugh and Mr. Economou.

The DOC-Economou partnership intends to spend $18 million buying the dealership, a contiguous home at 466 South Atlantic Ave. and a site at 5425 Baum owned by The Children's Home. The entire project, including the real estate purchases, will cost $220 million to $230 million and may take a total of four years to complete, built in phases to minimize the impact on the surrounding neighborhoods.

Spanning three blocks, the development will include 350,000 square feet of "boutique" retail, 58,000 square feet of street-level "commercial" retail, 300,000 square feet of office and medical space and a nine-story, 120-room hotel with the upper levels reserved for 150 condos and townhomes. Between 1,200 and 1,500 spaces of parking will be on the lower levels.

The goal is to start site preparation work this summer, pending city approval.