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Thursday, December 8, 2016
So you probably thought Cameron Village had enough apartment complexes by now, right?
Wrong.
There’s been something like 45* new apartment complexes put up in and around the Cameron Village area in the last ten years, but it appears the appetite for downtown-adjacent, overpriced apartment living in Raleigh is insatiable.
We have to admit: it would be pretty great to have a Harris Teeter, a Chick-fil-A, a Goodberry’s and a Fresh Market all within walking distance, but still, how many more residential units can that area withstand?
The answer, according to Texas-based developer The Leon Capital Group, appears to be “at least 201 more.”
In a recent site plan review application filed by the organization, whose North Carolina offices are based out Charlotte, Leon Capital outlines its plans to build the new, three-story, 201 unit Hillstone Cameron Village apartment complex.
What’s most impressive to our mind about the property, which is spread across 3.562 acres, is the fact that it’s been cobbled together from a total of 18(!) separate parcels, the majority of which are single-family homes. The properties to be absorbed by the new Hillstone Cameron Village also include the Roundabout Art Collective at 305 Oberlin Road.
The Roundabout Art Collective
As reported by the News & Observer in October, Leon Capital paid $11.6 million for the land, and doesn’t plan to break ground on the new apartments for at least a year. We imagine the process might take a bit longer.
The 50′ tall building, combined with a 293-space parking deck will be 237,654 SF in total size and be accompanied by a 7,872 SF outdoor amenity area. A breakdown on the size of the units, in terms of bedrooms, is not available at this point.
Site plans for the project were put together by Withers Ravenel with preliminary architectural designs put together by JDavis Architects.
A perusal of Leon’s past apartment projects — the company also builds out retail properties and self-storage units — tells us that Hillstone will likely blend in well with the many generic, “upscale” apartments in the surrounding area.
1711 Caroline, one of Leon Capital’s many previous developments
An article from the Charlotte Observer, where, as we mentioned, Leon Capital’s North Carolina operations are based, that decries the bland, uniform look of many of the Queen City’s newer multifamily developments feels like it could have been published in Raleigh’s News & Observer with only a few minor tweaks. Take this line for example:
The popularity of mid-rise, wood-framed buildings stems from increased demand for urban projects that fill in small, expensive parcels, said Bruce Lindsey, Charlotte-based regional director for trade group WoodWorks.
“If the land costs more,” he said, “the structure has to cost less.”
While we don’t necessarily agree with some of the conclusions reached there: namely, that local government should mandate more interesting design features, it would be nice if the look and feel of Raleigh’s new, ticky-tacky apartment complexes was as big a part of all those community conversations as the impacts they will have on traffic congestion and surrounding property values. A boy can dream.
*Not a real figure.
The area highlighted in yellow indicates the future site of the Hillstone Cameron Village apartments
