The city is opening the door for two residential or commercial towers to bookend a jail near downtown Brooklyn even as the Department of Correction has been seeking to assuage community concerns over plans to reopen and expand the Boreum Hill facility.

Correction officials met with members of the community last week, telling them that developers would soon be asked to submit conceptual plans for doubling the size of the now-closed House of Detention on Atlantic Avenue. Within their request for expressions of interest, the city told elected officials and community members they would likely include altered zoning requirements that would allow for retail and residential or commercial development, softening the impact of the planned 1,400-bed jail.

“Residential has always been on the table, so this represents one approach — and developers are welcome to look at this approach,” a spokesman for the correction department, Michael Saucier, said.

The city has said it needs to reopen and expand the Brooklyn facility in order to house inmates from its aging Riker’s Island jail.

The project is still years off and even if developers propose residential or commercial buildings on the full-block site, any changes to the zoning would need to be passed by the city planning commission and the City Council.

The plans by the city to expand the facility have drawn ire from residents surrounding the area, who generally shun the idea of a jail in their neighborhood and say land values could be depressed.