Spectrum developing 177-unit Uptown apartment project

CHARLOTTE – Spectrum Properties, a locally based developer, is getting set to start work on an apartment project called The Mint, a 177-unit community bound by Trade, Graham and Fourth streets, across Fourth from BB&T Ballpark.

Jason Fish, Spectrum’s director of development, said the property was fenced off earlier this week and site work will begin within the next week. Balfour Beatty, out of Dallas, is the general contractor on The Mint and Charlotte-based The Housing Studio is the architect, Fish said.

The first units in the seven-story project will be rented in the spring of 2015, Fish said.

A handful of the units will be studios and about a third will be two-bedroom apartments, with the remainder being one-bedroom units.

Fish said that even though the project is being developed just a couple of blocks from the massive 22-story, 352-unit Element Uptown apartment project well underway by Childress Klein, he doesn’t think that project will take away potential renters from Spectrum.

“Sure, people will cross-shop us” with the Childress Klein project, Fish said. “But we’ll offer more of a boutique feel. We’re also using a wood-frame construction, so we’ll probably come in at a lower price point.” The Element project has steel framing.

That boutique feel, Fish said, will come from having a smaller project, where residents and staff are much more likely to know each other, as well as smaller, intimate amenity spaces. The Mint will have a sky terrace on the top floor, a pool terrace with a garden on the third floor and a fitness center on the second floor with a view of the ballpark. The ground floor will also have almost 3,000 square feet of retail, the tenant of which has yet to be determined.

Spectrum bought the 1.7-acre site earlier this month, Fish said, adding that the company has been considering developing the project for about two years, waiting for the right time to break ground.