Jake Robbins, Contributing Photographer

Mayor Justin Elicker stood Friday afternoon alongside local real estate developers and city officials, shovels in hand, to mark the ceremonial groundbreaking of a new 168-unit apartment complex in Wooster Square.

“This is supposed to be groundbreaking, but clearly we’re ahead of schedule here, which is a great thing,” Elicker said, noting that much of the complex had already been built.

The project, dubbed Twenty Fair, will bring 168 market-rate apartments, along with 1,400 square feet of retail, restaurants and a public plaza. The developers will also set up a pedestrian and bicycle corridor linking downtown, Wooster Square and the Hill, according to the project website. Elicker and Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli, who also attended Friday’s groundbreaking, described the development as part of a broader effort to add 10,000 housing units across New Haven in the coming years.

The six-story building, which is being built next to the State Street train station, will include studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments.

At Friday’s groundbreaking, Ward 6 Alder Carmen Rodriguez, whose district encompasses the new apartment complex, stressed the neighborhood’s growing appeal.

“People are waiting for these things to be built so they can move from other parts of Connecticut to the city,” Rodriguez said during the press conference. “We build and people will come. It becomes a safer community, a safer space for everyone to enjoy.”

The project is a joint venture between Connecticut real estate developer Spinnaker Real Estate Partners and New York-based developer Epimoni. Both firms have previously invested in New Haven, with Spinnaker developing properties at Olive and Chapel Streets and Epimoni active in Wooster Square and downtown.

The developers framed the project as part of a revitalization of Wooster Square and a sign of long-standing developer partnerships in the city. Frank Caico, vice president at Spinnaker Real Estate Partners, said he and Epimoni founder Darren Seid first met while working on adjacent sites in New Haven more than a decade ago.

“This block between Wooster Square and State Street was sort of a hodgepodge of underutilized industrial buildings,” Caico said. “We really want to do something to activate the street and to be here today, to have seen all of this take place, is really truly gratifying.”

The apartment complex will be located at 20 Fair St.