Plans are being drawn up to convert a 13-story downtown Mobile office building at the foot of Government Street to apartments, an executive at a commercial real estate company confirmed on Wednesday.

Gavin Bender Sr., a broker and consultant at Bender Real Estate Group, confirmed that reports emerging on social media about plans for the Riverview Plaza office tower are correct.

“Well, it is true,” said Bender. “We are in the planning stages of converting the Riverview Office Plaza into a multi-family project. It’s a project that will happen probably next year so it’s premature for us to get into much discussion about it. But the rumor is true, we are in the planning process of doing that.”

The office tower is part of the Renaissance Riverview Plaza Hotel complex at Government and Royal streets in downtown Mobile. The hotel is owned by Retirement Systems of Alabama, Bender said, and the adjacent parking garage is owned by the city, but the office tower is privately owned.

The location could hardly be more visible. Visitors turning on Government Street after exiting Interstate 10 pass right by it. It’s within easy walking distance of Government Plaza and the Dauphin Street entertainment district. It’s also on the city’s main Mardi Gras parade route, and the plaza courtyard frequently is a starting point for public festivities such as MoonPie Over Mobile and a recent parade honoring Jimmy Buffett.

“It’s going to be an intriguing project,” said Bender. “It’s going to be a wonderful addition to downtown.”

Bender said it was too early in the process to talk about the number of apartments that might occupy the space, how they might be designed or what rents might be. Those details could begin to emerge in six months or so, he said.

“It’s premature to discuss the actual project, other that the fact that we are in the planning stages and it is in the plan to do the conversion,” he said.

Bender said the plan did not involve a change in ownership. He declined to identify the owners.

According to a company that evaluated the property before it changed hands in a 2012 sale for $16.8 million, the tower is a “reinforced concrete and steel structure with a total gross building area of 181,166 square feet and a net rentable area of 163,348 square feet.”