13 to watch in ’13: Camden Property Trust

(Part two of a 13-part series)

Editor’s note: For many, 13 is a dreaded number, a cursed pair of digits to be avoided at all costs. But ’13 might be a year of luck and plenty for some Charlotte-area developers and real estate and construction companies.

The Mecklenburg Times, in a 13-part series, will focus on the people, companies and things worth paying attention to in 2013. There’s no science behind our list; simply, our reporting and research have us thinking that these 13 will be among the busiest and biggest newsmakers of the year. Who knows? We could be wrong.

Previous: M/I Homes

CHARLOTTE — Camden Property Trust will be fattening Charlotte’s apartment stock, as the Houston-based company plans to start construction on at least two apartment complexes in the city this year.

That in and of itself isn’t exactly special, as many other companies also have plans for, or are already building, apartments in Charlotte, which is undergoing a boom in apartment construction.

But Camden is turning heads in another way, by strengthening its foothold in Charlotte’s South End, where, according to one analyst, Camden already owns more apartment units than anyone else.

This year, Camden, a publicly traded company, plans to start construction on two more apartment projects in South End. One of the projects is called Southline. The name of the other one hasn’t been finalized, Camden said.

Camden unveiled plans for Southline in November. The 270-unit, 300,000-square-foot complex is expected to be built on South Boulevard, at the intersection of Iverson Way.

The following month, Camden announced the unnamed project, which will be built within the city block bounded by Camden Road, Kingston Avenue, Hawkins Street and West Boulevard. Mark Coletta, Camden’s vice president of development, said the unnamed project will have 324 units.

Camden has not disclosed the development costs for the two projects.

Camden’s growing presence in South End has captured the attention of apartment industry observers, such as Charles Dalton, president of Real Data, a Charlotte-based company that studies the city’s apartment market.

Dalton said Camden, which already owns two South End apartment complexes — Camden South End and Camden Grandview — easily surpasses any other company when it comes to the number of units it owns in the neighborhood. South End is already home to 2,200 apartments — some owned by Camden, some not — and at least eight more are planned for the neighborhood, including Camden’s two, Dalton said.

If all of those apartments opened tomorrow, Camden would own roughly a quarter of the apartments in South End, Dalton said.

“I don’t think there is another company that owns multiple complexes in the neighborhood,” Dalton told The Mecklenburg Times in December. “And they will own four that are within walking distance of each other.”

Construction on Southline is expected to start in June, with leasing to begin in the fourth quarter of 2014. Construction is expected to wrap up in the second quarter of 2015.

The timeline for the other project — “Centro” is its working title — will be slightly behind Southline’s.

Coletta and Will Smith, development manager for Camden, would not say whether Camden plans to build more apartments in Charlotte.

Building apartments won’t be all Camden does in Charlotte in 2013. The company will also be busy renovating its other Charlotte-area complexes this year, apparently in a move to stay competitive amid the flurry of apartments being built by other companies.

Smith said the company is renovating eight complexes and plans to do renovation work at its other Charlotte-area apartment sites. He said he did not know the costs of those renovation projects.

“We have, in our Charlotte market more so than in the majority of our other markets, a bit of an aged portfolio,” Smith said. “A lot of our dated properties are in fantastic locations, so it’s important for us to keep them up.

“We’re rehabbing just about every one of our existing communities in Charlotte.”

Camden’s renovation work will include updating cabinets, counters, bathrooms, kitchens and appliances. The goal is to make Camden’s older apartments appear more modern, Smith said, adding that Camden will also be boosting its rents at renovated complexes.

Camden has said that rents will increase by $120 per month, on average, at complexes that have been renovated.

“Obviously, when you do projects like this, where you’re putting capital in, you expect to get some sort of return on that investment,” Smith said.

The extent of Camden’s renovations will vary from complex to complex, Smith said. Camden Grandview, for example, will receive extensive renovations, while other complexes will undergo minor work.