Simon Property Group and The Haven Group, LLC applied last evening for site plan approval before the West Haven Planning Board, the first entitlement step towards building The Haven, a 235,000 square foot luxury outlet center.

The project is scheduled for completion in summer 2020 and officials say it will turn West Haven into a retail and entertainment center. Eighty stores and five full-service restaurants are planned.

“We are very excited to move this project forward after years of behind-the-scenes effort,” said Ty Miller, President of the Haven Group, LLC. “Today’ssubmission represents our best proposal yet.”

Suspicions arose several months ago after the project seemed to stall.

“As you know, it took us longer than expected to get the real estate locked up,” Matt Armstrong, executive vice president of The Haven Group told the New Haven Register.

Nick’s Luncheonette, a popular local spot on 1st Avenue is on the edge of the proposed plan for the mall. The tenants finally closed up shop mid-April, with plans to move across town to a new location.

Former West Haven Mayor Ed O’Brien told the Charger Bulletin in September that the project was scheduled to be built over the next 18 months, but the real estate holdouts have continued to push back the expected open date to 2020.

Mayor Nancy Rossi told the Register in March that she does not believe the project is stalled anymore.

“This is a major step forward for a project of this magnitude,” Rossi said on the plan submission. “This prime site is also minutes from the downtown business district, regional train station, and campuses of the University of New Haven, Yale University West, and Veterans Affairs Hospital.”