AURORA | Aurora City Hall has probably been called a lot of things over the years, many of them probably not family friendly Now, the old City Hall at 1470 S. Havana St. has a new name for a few Aurora residents: home.

The new Bella Vita senior living apartment complex opened early last month in the eight-story building south of The Gardens on Havana.

Peter Milbourn, senior living manager for Bella Vita, said the 86-unit building is about 15-percent full as of this week, with a steady stream of prospective residents coming by each day to check it out.

“We’re pretty much right on track with where we were scheduled to be,” he said. “So we’re hopeful within a year to be fully occupied.”

Milbourn said the property near South Havana Street and East Mississippi Avenue is an ideal fit for Bella Vita’s parent company, Covenant Retirement Services, which operates a dozen other retirement facilities in eight states.

The Anschutz Medical Campus on East Colfax Avenue is relatively close, as well as the bustling shopping district, The Gardens on Havana.

Plus, Milbourn said, it’s centrally located so residents can be close to their loved ones.

“I think it’s family, people are moving to be close to their kids as well,” he said.

Dennis Witte, president and owner of Omni Development, which developed Bella Vita, said in a statement that the demographics are a good fit too.

“The site was a perfect fit for this type of senior community. The Aurora area is filled with baby-boomers in need of alternative housing options, and adding to the redevelopment of the Havana Street area was an added bonus to our development team,” he said.

For 10 years before city government moved to its new home near East Alameda and Chambers Road, the building known as “Camelot II” was home to almost every branch of city government, including city council.

Since the Gardens opened in 2007 on the site of the Buckingham Square Mall, disappointment about the lack of new residential property there has lingered even as officials praised the project for revitalizing a once-vibrant stretch of Havana. But that is starting to change.

Gayle Jetchick, president of the Havana Business Improvement District, said the Bella Vita project is a welcome addition to the neighborhood.

“I can say that we are truly excited to see redevelopment of the Camelot II building,” she said in the statement.