At least 60 potential owners of condominiums in the planned Water Street parking deck redevelopment project attended a launch party recently in Wilmington, a Realtor said Friday.
“We have buyers interested and are ready to get the ball rolling,” said Jimmy Hopkins of Hopkins & Associates, the Intracoastal Realty team in charge of leasing and sales for the residential portion of the project.
The project, dubbed River Place, is expected to include 92 condominiums (up from the 58 planned previously) and 78 apartments, Hopkins said. And next week, those additions to downtown housing options could move closer to becoming reality.
After several months of negotiations, city officials announced Friday morning that a development agreement with East West Partners, the Chapel Hill-based firm chosen to redevelop the Water Street site into a mixed-use mecca for downtown Wilmington, will be part of the agenda at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
Under the agreement with East West, doing business as Water Street Ventures LLC, the construction costs the city would pay related to the deck, including demolishing the existing deck and building a new one, would be at least $19.7 million, with an additional $2 million needed to pay for an accelerated Chestnut/Grace Street reconstruction project, $400,000 for utility relocation costs and a little more than $400,000 in estimated interim interest over a 24-month construction period.
The total cost of the redevelopment was previously estimated at about $68 million. As part of the agreement, the developer would pay the city a little more than $1 million for air rights and an additional amount related to a ground rights lease.
City councilman Kevin O’Grady said as a result of the air rights payment, the ground lease, increase in the city's tax base and other benefits, the return is expected to be worth the city’s investment.
“Obviously, it’s a big expense for the city, but it was a big expense no matter what,” O’Grady said Friday, referring to the fact that the city would have had to demolish the old, failing parking deck whether anyone redeveloped the property or not, at what would likely have been the same cost.
This way, he said, “we’ve got a return for it, and we’re really enhancing the future of our downtown.”
Hopkins said the majority of the condos for sale at River Place are in the $450,000 to $600,000 price range, with eight penthouses on the 12th and 13th floors costing more. No short-term rentals would be allowed, he said. Currently, Hopkins and his team are taking reservations for the units, which wouldn't go under contract until demolition on the old parking deck began.
In addition to 170 residential units for sale or lease, the redevelopment will include 25,633 square feet of commercial space, including retail shops and restaurant and bar space, mainly on the ground floor, according to the agreement. The building would not exceed 132 feet and construction would have to be complete within 36 months after the sale of the property.
The new parking deck would contain 409 spaces, of which at least 174 would be reserved for public use.
Public hearings on a resolution and ordinance related to the development agreement and the funding that will come from the city are on the agenda for the city council’s meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 102 N. Third St.
O’Grady said the construction of River Place could inspire developers to consider other redevelopment projects in downtown Wilmington.
“Maybe this will spur them to say, ‘OK, there’s activity down here, let’s build here,'” O’Grady said.
