Renovations to turn the middle floors of the First National Bank building downtown into upscale apartments has begun in earnest with hopes of completion by spring.

Work started in June at the Residences at First National to remove asbestos and gut the upper floors is “just about complete,” said Nicole Coulter Gilmer of First National of Vicksburg LLC, which purchased the eight-story building in 2007 to convert floors above Trustmark Bank into high-end apartments to emphasize views of the Yazoo Canal, Mississippi River and Louisiana Delta.

“We’re looking at spring 2013 with 55 units,” Gilmer said.

Top floors are intended to attract a commercial tenant, which will require an addition to the roof, Gilmer said.

Amenities on site were to include a fitness center, a private entrance, outdoor terraces, a restaurant and high-speed Internet service, according to promotional material.

The Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation has worked with the group to secure federal and state tax credits for rehabilitating the historic structure, said Nancy Bell, executive director of the foundation.

All development plans for the building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, have been approved by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, which eliminates the need for the extended roof to be OK’d by the Vicksburg Board of Architectural Review, board secretary Paula Wright said.

Built in 1905, the building housed First National Bank and, later, Trustmark, which merged with First National, on its lower floors for about 80 years and once was the tallest building in Mississippi. Trustmark will remain open on the building’s two bottom floors.