CLARIFICATION: This story has been changed from the original version to clarify the role of Symphony Properites in the Independence West apartment project.

A Cary development firm has dropped out of plans to build an apartment complex on Independence Boulevard, but expects to break ground in April on riverfront apartments in downtown Wilmington.

Last year, Symphony Properties proposed 256 apartments on 15 acres of land in the 3800 and 3900 blocks of Independence Boulevard near Echo Farms for a community called Independence West.

“We’re no longer pursuing the property right now,” Blair Booth, manager of Symphony Properties, said Monday, adding that he had no other details to share.

But while Symphony Properties is no longer part of the development group that has the land under contract, Arcadia Real Estate, plans are moving forward to set the stage for an apartment community on the site, said Garry Silivanch, partner in Eastern Carolinas Commercial Real Estate and listing agent for the property.

Booth had said in a Greater Wilmington Business Journal article in December that Independence West had stalled as the firm worked on sewer capacity issues with the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority. The authority’s Pump Station No. 36, which is on Independence Boulevard and would serve the Independence West apartment project, has had a limited amount of capacity available to accommodate growth in the area, according to CFPUA documents.

Silivanch said negotiations are under way between Arcadia Real Estate, CFPUA and Cameron Properties, which is currently developing a 300-acre mixed-use project nearby, for upgrades to the pump station that would fulfill the capacity need for the Independence West apartment project.

Earlier this year, Cameron Properties entered into a different agreement with CFPUA to pay $60,000 for interim upgrades to Pump Station No. 36. The firm is building Gallery Park Apartments at 17th Street and George Anderson Drive, which serves as the first phase of the larger mixed-use project.

The upgrades provide Gallery Park, referred to by its former name of Barclay West in the CFPUA documents, with the sewer capacity necessary to stick to its timeline, an authority official said at the CFPUA board’s March 11 meeting, at which the board approved the agreement with Cameron Properties. 

Independence West wasn’t the only project Booth’s company has been working on in Wilmington. Earlier this month, Symphony Properties closed on its purchase of the land where it will build Sawmill Point, a 278-unit, four-story apartment development at 15 Cowan St. in downtown Wilmington.

Sawmill Point Apartments Owner LLC paid $5.6 million to buy 15 Cowan St. and 111 Cowan St. from Sawmill Point Investors LLC, according to a deed registered March 6 in New Hanover County.