Proffitt Dixon hopes the Blue Line puts its $26M apartment project on path to success

The site where Proffitt Dixon Partners is developing a $26.2 million, 208-unit luxury apartment community sits near the Lynx Blue Line light-rail route.

And the company is taking advantage of that.

Construction began last month on Fountains at New Bern Station. Plans include a light-rail lobby that will be built about 50 feet from the New Bern Blue Line station.

The lobby will give apartment residents an enclosed, climate-controlled space complete with Wi-Fi access. It will also feature flat-screen televisions displaying the news.

“We have never seen this anywhere,” said Stewart Proffitt, who owns the Charlotte-based multifamily development and investment firm with Wyatt Dixon. “It really sets the project up to take advantage of the adjacent feature of the light-rail station. An upscale hotel lobby is what it will feel like.”

The lobby will also feature a Starbucks coffee bar.

Plans for the lobby are still under development.

“We’re looking into the ability to put a camera on the south end of the building that looks down the track,” Proffitt said, “and include that camera image using picture-in-picture on the TV screens in the room.”

The first apartments will be available for rent in the spring of 2013, Proffitt said.

In a June auction, Proffitt Dixon bought the vacant property at New Bern Street and Foster Avenue for $1.5 million from TD Bank.

“Another apartment developer had owned it and bought it in 2007 and, obviously, like so many projects, the developers got caught in the downward cycle,” Dixon said.

Greensboro-based Samet Corp. is the general contractor for the development.

The Fountains at New Bern will include granite countertops and stainless steel appliances – features common in Class A apartments – and a rooftop Zen garden.

Light-rail commuters are not the only type of renters Proffitt Dixon is hoping to attract.

Dixon said they want dog owners, too.

“We’re making an especially strong effort to be dog-friendly,” he said.

In addition to a nearly 5-acre, fenced-in site, the project will include two dog parks, he said.

Another amenity for dogs: a dog-wash station with elevated tub and drying area.

“We’re embracing the dogs,” Proffitt said. “Certainly we’ll have some restrictions on aggressive breeds … but at the same time we do want to make sure it’s a good environment for them.”

Samet is also the contractor for The Fountains at Mooresville, the other upscale apartment complex under development by Proffitt Dixon. The 227-unit project near Lake Norman should be ready for leasing in a few months.

Created in June, Proffitt Dixon is a relatively new firm. It was formed when Dixon and Proffitt merged their companies, Hawkins-Dixon and Proffitt Capital Group, and teamed with former investment fund manager Robert Deaton.

Proffitt Dixon and investment affiliate, Southeast Apartment Investors, are focusing on the development of apartment communities in three markets, Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, and Charleston, S.C.

– TARA RAMSEY