Elkus Manfredi Architects was selected from six finalists to design the mixed-use development on the 12-acre plot along Franklin Street currently home to the shopping plaza and Granville Towers.

The firm was chosen by the Chapel Hill Foundation Real Estate Holdings and its development partner, Cousins Properties, partly because it has worked on similar projects before, including the South Campus Gateway, a massive mixed-use project at Ohio State University. It has also done design work on the Central Campus plan at Duke.

The Chapel Hill foundation is a non-profit arm of UNC. It bought the land for about $46 million and plans to rework an area officials say is dated.

The Manfredi hiring is a critical step, said Gordon Merklein, UNC's executive director of real estate development.

The Ohio State project includes an eight-screen cinema, a 55,000-square-foot bookstore and a number of restaurants and shops.

In Chapel Hill, design will continue until spring and construction likely won't start for three years, Merklein said.

The plan is to tear down the current strip mall plaza that houses a number of small restaurants and shops and build a larger building closer to the street. Doing so will create an urban feel similar to the rest of downtown and will include a parking deck, officials say. Once complete, the project could add 200 to 300 more parking spaces, he said.

"It needs to reconnect to Franklin Street and reconnect to campus," Merklein said. "It doesn't do that at all now. It's just a suburban office building sitting back from the street."

Current tenants, like the popular Time Out biscuit joint, will be asked to stay in the new development, Merklein said.

The fate of Granville Towers, the private residence halls that house about 1,000 students, is less clear, Merklein said. They could be demolished or renovated, but Merklein said he does expect some residential component on the redeveloped property.

The Atlanta-based Cousins Properties conducted a market survey, selected Manfredi, and ultimately will develop the project.

Erskine Bowles, the UNC system president, is a member of the Cousins board of directors. He has not been involved in this project, Merklein said.