Independence Boulevard could see influx of apartments, cottages, townhomes with rezoning

Plans are underway to bring more than 500 new rentals to a busy intersection in mid-town Wilmington.

Middleburg Communities, a Virginia-based construction and property management company, is looking to build a 290-unit apartment complex along with 280 single-family rentals near the intersection of S. 17th Street, Independence Boulevard and the Cameron Art Museum.

The proposed 50-acre development site is just a portion of the more than 300 acres rezoned in 2013 for the Barclay West development.

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The rezoning encompassed various tracts of land along Independence Boulevard between S. 17th Street and Carolina Beach Road. It rezoned land for several uses, including offices, retail and restaurants along with commercial and residential space.

Now, Middleburg Communities wants to rezone two tracts of land that were zoned for office space to build more housing in the area.

The company is looking to build five four-story apartment buildings on an approximately 20-acre tract that borders S. 17th Street. The cottage and townhome community will be built farther from S. 17th Street, on a more than 30-acre piece of land that abuts the Hanover Heights neighborhood.

Middleburg Communities is under contract to buy both tracts of land, but won't close on the sale until the rezoning and project plans are approved, said Jason Pfister, who works as the vice president of land entitlements for the company.

The company is "fully integrated," Pfister said, which means it has both a construction and property management arm.

"We design, build and operate our own projects," he said.

The company was drawn to the site because of its location -- situated across Independence Boulevard from the Pointe at Barclay, which is home to a Starbucks, a movie theater and several high-end restaurants. It's also situated diagonally opposite the Cameron Art Museum.

Middleburg Communities has past success in the Wilmington market with the apartment complex Oasis at Riverlights, formerly called the Mosby at Riverlights.

Pfister said because the company had a positive experience in Wilmington, they wanted to return when they saw the opportunity. They've been working on the design for this project for roughly six months, Pfister said.

One feature of the development is its neighborhood of cottage-style rentals, which are being called The Hamlet, Pfister said. Designs for the neighborhood situate the single-family homes around shared quad-like greenspaces that provide residents room for gardens, fire pits and other outdoor activities.

"Rather than just a maze of streets ... we were able to move the parking around and reorient the buildings in a way that ... you have a much greener and interconnected space," Pfister said.

Neighboring homeowners had questions about how roads from the development would connect into their neighborhoods and how the cottage rentals would work. Overall, Pfister said, many who attended the community meeting knew the land was destined for some type of development, following the rezoning in 2013.

The project is set to go before Wilmington's Planning Commission on June 1, Pfister said. He added the new housing units will help address the housing demand in the Cape Fear region.

"Wilmington's a city that is obviously in need of housing," he said. "The demand is there."

Reporter Emma Dill can be reached at 910-343-2096 or edill@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Wilmington's Independence Boulevard could see new apartments, homes