A deal is nearly done and closing should be completed soon for the Elizabethtown Gas building property that is planned as 60 units of affordable artist housing in the Arts District.

The Planning Board could be presented with an application on the 60-unit proposal as early as its April meeting.

An estimated $400,000 will be deducted from the sale price and put into escrow for environmental clean-up costs, according to Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier, but he declined to disclose the sale price until the closing is completed. The property is currently owned by AGL Resources, the parent company of Elizabethtown.

The Actors Fund Housing Development Corporation was conditionally designated as redeveloper of the property in May 2012 and presented a concept plan, with Crawford Street Partners, to the Redevelopment Agency for 60 units nearly a year ago.

A Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) approved last month by City Council stipulates that the Rahway Residence for the Arts would pay 5.73 percent of annual gross revenues. Based on a split of 40 one-bedrooms, 14 two-bedrooms and six three-bedroom units and the anticipated median rents, the project’s PILOT in the first year would be more than $36,500. The roughly 1-acre site at Hamilton Street and Central Avenue currently has an annual property tax bill of about $30,000, based on an assessment of $496,400.