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Posted: 4:30 p.m.
Monday, March 16, 2015
HOUSING
Middletown apartment complex
plan approved
By http://www.journal-news.com/staff/ed-richter/" rel="nofollow - Staff Writer
MIDDLETOWN —
Groundbreaking
for a $20 million, 216-apartment community is expected for April as the
Middletown Planning Commission approved the final development plan for Nicholas Place
luxury apartments.
The
Planning Commission approved the final development plan for the South Towne Boulevard
site at its meeting last week and City Council is expected to confirm the final
plan for Nicholas Place
at its Tuesday meeting. City officials have said it will be the first new
upscale market-rate apartments built in Middletown
in more than 30 years and are designed to attract new residents who may prefer
not to be home-buyers.
“We
are a go,” said Tonya Burns of the Fred Burns Development Team, who is
developing the apartment community. “We’ve already closed on the land and we’re
moving right along.”
Burns
said she’s been very pleased with the “great rapport we’ve had with the
Planning Commission and City Council.”
“We
plan to break ground in April,” she said.
She
said the company is already preparing for excavation bids to go out in the next
few weeks.
Burns
said the first apartments could be ready for occupancy in late 2015. In the
past, she has declined to give a specific price point for the units, but did
say they would be market rate.
Nicholas Place sits on 22.4 acres
and will have nine buildings with 24 units, each of two- and three-bedroom
apartments. The average unit will have about 1,145 square feet of floor space
and 95 percent will have brick exteriors.
The
community would include amenities such as a pool, clubhouse/fitness room,
playground, garage spaces, community garden, a dog park and basketball court.
Of the 216 planned units, plans call for 144 two-bedroom units and 72
three-bedroom units. The community is located west of South Towne Boulevard between Lefferson Road and Arbor Court and is
in the Lebanon City School District.
The
family-owned company has developed a number of properties of this size and just
completed a similar-sized luxury apartment community in LaGrange,
Ky., just outside of Louisville. The Middletown
project will be the company’s first venture into Ohio. The company currently owns in excess
of 1,200 units in seven properties in Kentucky,
including four apartment properties in Northern Kentucky communities of Florence, Independence and Burlington.
City
officials said the property is in the East End Tax Increment Financing district
and the new property valuation and resulting taxes would contribute to the
retirement of the debt for the construction of South Towne Boulevard. At its meeting
last week, the Planning Commission reduced the park impact fee from $97,200 or
$450 per unit to $75,600 or $350 per unit because of the various recreational
amenities planned for the apartment community.
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