In a nearly $35.8 million deal, a student housing company recently bought apartment properties close to UNCW.

Campus Evolution Villages purchased Campus Walk and Campus Walk II from Wilmington Student Housing on May 29, according to a deed filed in New Hanover County. The Wilmington apartments are located at 420 and 455 Racine Drive, within a short walk or bike ride from the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

"We think the school is a really great educational institution," said Andrew Stark, CEO of Campus Evolution Villages. He said Campus Walk properties are "ideally located" close to campus. With the sale, "we saw the opportunity to bring in some of our management expertise and how we treat the residents," he said.

The company has locations in New York City, where accounting and administrative functions are based, and Charlotte, the headquarters for Campus Evolution Villages' operations, Stark said. The company's website shows more than 20 locations throughout the U.S., including an apartment community in Greensboro near N.C. A&T State University.

Stark's firm will be rebranding the Wilmington properties some time in the fall, so as not to confuse current or potential clients, he said. Campus Evolution Villages is planning upgrades, including improvements to the apartment community's Internet service and clubhouse. 

"We are going to be spending over $2 million in the first year," Stark said.

The company has also ordered 100 custom bicycles, expected to arrive at the Wilmington apartments in mid-August, for residents to use free of charge, he said. 

The bikes and upgrades are part of how Campus Evolution Villages wants to provide students with a positive experience, Stark said.

"We look at how we can create a better environment for all the residents. While they're in the most formative years of their academic and personal growth, we want to be part of it," he said.

New student housing units in Wilmington are among the thousands of apartments completed from 2012 to 2014, as well as those under construction or proposed this year, according to Multifamily Realty Advisors, a real estate firm that specializes in apartment sales in Wilmington and the Triangle area.

Last year, investors bought more than $235 million worth of apartment communities, with a variety of tenant types, in the Wilmington area, a recent MRA report stated.

Wilmington Student Housing purchased the properties where Campus Walk and Campus Walk II are located for more than $26 million in 2012 from Racine Drive Associates and New Center Drive Associates LLC, according to county property tax records.