A Charleston, South Carolina company has been tapped to begin development of what will eventually be a major mixed-use neighborhood along 17th Street extension in Wilmington.

Kassinger Development Group will be responsible for building the first phase of Gallery Park Apartments, a complex on 25.5 acres that will eventually consist of 402 apartments and a 3,800-square-foot community center with swimming pool. The property is owned by Cameron Management Inc.

Plans for the project, which will have a main entrance near the intersection of S. 17th Street and George Anderson Drive, have been submitted to the city, according to the company.

Kassinger representative Jay Bernstein said Tuesday that Phase One will be composed of the community center and nine buildings containing a total of 258 apartments. The apartments, he said, will range from 752-square-foot one-bedroom units to 1,345-square-foot three-bedroom units.  Kassinger will also build 50 garages as part of Phase One. Several hundred parking places will also serve the complex.

Gallery Park Apartments are just the first increment of Barclay West, a 300-acre planned development that will ultimately consist of 133 acres of office and institutional buildings, 84 acres of regional business, 72 acres of multi-family housing, and four acres designated for community business, officials said in an interview last December.

Bernstein said that Kassinger Group has a “long, successful track record” in developing multi-family housing.

“We got linked up with the Cameron Family and it seemed a natural fit, a good partnership,” Bernstein said. “We’re excited to be a part of this. We were fortunate to get in front of the Cameron family.”

Hill Rogers, broker-in-charge with Cameron Management, said that his firm was introduced to Chip Kassinger about 18 months ago.

"The relationship has evolved and grown since that introduction," Rogers said in an email. "After spending some time with them, visiting some of their other projects and meeting their contemporaries and colleagues, the decision to team up with them was an easy one."
 
Shovels (and bulldozers) are almost at the ready for this project.

"We plan to start extending sewer infrastructure in July which would be a main trunk line to serve the eastern portion of Gallery Park, which the other components of the development (apartments, retail, etc.) would tie into," Rogers said in the email. "Actual site work specific to the apartments is expected to start in September with other general site work infrastructure (roads, sidewalks, etc.) to occur simultaneously."

Bernstein said that his company will begin construction after Cameron Management has completed site development work.