‘Chic-urbanism’ apartments going up in Cornelius

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CORNELIUS – More than one year, two developers and a rezoning battle later, construction is finally underway on new Class A apartments in the Kenton Place mixed-use development on West Catawba Avenue.

Kenton Place Partners LLC of Charleston, S.C., last Tuesday pulled nearly $3.5 million in Mecklenburg County building permits to start construction on a three-building, 210-unit complex, which is expected to build out at a cost of more than $25 million, according to Lance Youngquist, one of three partners behind the Reserve at Kenton Place project.

The apartments, along with a $6.5 million renovation of the old Palace multiplex cinema into a new Cornelius worship center for the ever-growing Matthews-based Elevation Church, are expected to breathe new life into retail-office-apartment center, which lay largely fallow during the recession.

“We’re really going for a New York-style chic-urbanism feel, but at a price point that will be competitive in Cornelius,” Youngquist said.

The one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments will all have granite countertops, balconies and other upscale features, Youngquist said, as will the buildings, which will have elevators, lobbies and interior apartment-access hallways with security cameras.

Rents at the Reserve at Kenton Place will start at $800 for the one-bedroom units, which will come with a second bathroom to accommodate overnight guests, Youngquist said.

Youngquist said the complex has been designed to attract and keep tenants in a number of different market niches, and the amenities are tailored to fit in with surrounding development in and near Kenton Place.

Pet owners, for instance, will not only have a “Bark Park,” Youngquist explained, but it will be situated to have easy access to the ground level, where apartments for dog-owners will largely be congregated, and the floors will be a stain-resistant “luxury vinyl.”

The clubhouse’s fitness center has been scaled back because a nearby female-only fitness center plans to expand into a unisex center, Youngquist said.

Other nearby development, including a pub, a Harris Teeter and a future Whole Foods upscale grocery store will all be within walking distance.

“The goal is to offer a community where the tenants will want to stay long term,” Youngquist said. “The three-bedrooms, for instance, are designed for families with multiple children who can walk to the nearby daycare center. We want our tenants to want to stay there.”

Youngquist said he and his partners hope to have the clubhouse and a model apartment open by spring 2014.

The Reserve at Kenton Place project comes a year after a failed attempt by original Kenton Place developer Gary Cangelosi of Cornelius to get a 108-unit boutique apartment complex on a nearby tract in the mixed-use center approved by the Cornelius Board of Commissioners, which has a track record of being opposed to high-density residential development.

The tract was approved for 81 apartments with street-level retail, but Cangelosi – citing high occupancy rates for multifamily and low occupancy rates for retail in the area – wanted to build apartments without the retail.

“Nobody’s gonna finance or build anything with retail in it right there,” Cangelosi said in November 2012.

Despite testimony to the Board of Commissioners from a traffic engineer that apartments without retail would bring less traffic, the board in November nixed the proposal because the majority of the members said any kind of apartments would add too many cars to West Catawba.

The tract where Kenton Place Partners is building the 210-apartment complex is pre-approved for that many apartments and without retail, meaning it does not need Cornelius Board of Commissioners approval.

After Cangelosi’s defeat, Kenton Place Partners went public with their plans last March at about the same time that the Elevation Church renovation project was announced.

Kenton Place Partners comprises Youngquist, the 30-year owner of Youngquist Homes in the Raleigh-Durham area, and Jeff Byrd and Bill Peeples of First Carolina Properties, based in Cherry.

The three have another apartment project under construction in Pooler, Ga., just outside Savannah; and Byrd and Peebles have a newly completed multifamily development in Fayetteville.