LYNN – Two long defunct commercial sites in the city’s business district could soon be given new life, according to Executive Director of the Economic Development & Industrial Corporation (EDIC) James Cowdell.The Athanas family, owners of the former Anthony’s Hawthorne at 95 Oxford St., has expressed interest in purchasing the former Whyte’s Laundry site located next to the main post office for use in a proposed project.Cowdell said the Athanas family has been in discussion with the city to transform the old restaurant into a four or five story building that would contain parking underground, commercial space on the first floor and residential units on the remaining floors.In addition, the family has expressed interest in purchasing the former Whyte’s site to create a parking lot, which would be made available to customers shopping at the proposed commercial spaces.”The Athanas family has hired the Boston architectural firm Steffian Bradley for the design and preliminary studies to see if the project is feasible and they’ve spent some serious money,” he said. “We’ve come so far from the family not speaking to us, to working on the first steps, so we’ve got our fingers crossed.”Before anything is built on the site, Cowdell said contaminants from the former laundry must be removed.”We are working with the Attorney General’s office to come up with a not-to-sue covenant to get the owner off the hook,” he said. “Once we do that, we would have the owner transfer the land to the city and then we can clean it up with a Brownfield’s grant.”Cowdell said the city would then pave the site and sell it to the Athanas family.”It’s a pretty good sized lot,” he said. “The spot has been vacant for years, so we’re focusing on it right now to get things moving, because we don’t want to wait several more years,” he said.The Whyte’s site has remained a large eyesore since former owner Russell Goldsmith tore down the building in 2000 to make way for a proposed expansion to the post office, and the Hawthorne site has remained empty for nearly five years.The plan came to a screeching halt in 2001 when the Post Office froze construction plans nationwide. The ban lifted in 2003, but efforts to acquire the property from Goldsmith never materialized.Prior to talks with the Athanas family, Cowdell said the city pressured the family to make a decision on the property, which they remained mum about until recently.City officials discussed the possibility of eminent domain in the event the family refused to negotiate, but Cowdell previously said that all other avenues would be exhausted prior.Opened in 1937 by the late Anthony Athanas, the family also owned four additional restaurants, including Hawthorne by the Sea in Swampscott and General Glover House, also in Swampscott, which closed 15 years ago and still remains vacant.The Athanas family was previously approached with two formal offers to purchase the Hawthorne in May, but a delayed response baffled the city.