An investment group that recently bought a Wilmington apartment complex plans to make improvements to the property, one of the investors said this week.

ILM Capital bought Abbots Run, a community with one- to three-bedroom apartments on Cobblestone Drive off Market Street, for $23.75 million on March 7 from Virginia-based GrayCo, according to a deed recorded in New Hanover County.

“Different parts of our group have owned in Wilmington in the past and have had good experiences, and so this is an asset that benefits our profile,” said Michael Wheeler, a principal with ILM Capital.

Wheeler said the new owners plan to start making changes for the better soon at Abbots Run.

“We have a capital improvement plan that will kick off here this summer with a new clubhouse and renovations of amenities on the property,” he said. “And then also later this year, we’ll begin a full renovation of the units.”

The plan is for the unit renovations, which will include installing a washer and dryer in each apartment and updating the interiors, to take about two years, Wheeler said.

The apartments were built in 2001, according to property tax records.

“As you go on the property, it looks and feels very well maintained; it looks current,” Wheeler said. “When we update the interiors, it will be as nice as any other property in Wilmington at really a value rent.”

In recent years, the apartment market has been booming in the Wilmington area, with multiple bids from investors on existing apartment communities, new units under construction and several new apartment projects in planning stages.

Before ILM Capital bought the property, the last sale of Abbotts Run was by Atlantis Partners LLC to GrayCo for a little below $16 million in November 2003, property tax records show. The property includes more than 14 acres at 4598 and 5002 McClelland Drive and 575 Cobblestone Drive, according to the deed and property tax records.

The listing broker on the Abbotts Run sale was the publicly traded company Jones Lange LaSalle.