FAYETTEVILLE - Plans are emerging for another apartment complex along West Center Street.
City planners and engineers on Wednesday reviewed preliminary designs for a 175-unit, 432-bedroom complex south of Center, between Duncan and Hill avenues. The site is across the street from a 471-bedroom complex called The Cardinalat West Center scheduled to open in 2014.
Both projects are being developed by Specialized Real Estate Group of Fayetteville.
Seth Mims, a partner and president of Specialized Real Estate, said Wednesday his company is under contract to buy several properties on a hill across Center Street from the University of Arkansas campus. Mims said four rental houses and an eight-unit apartment complex will be razed if plans are approved.
Like other recent Specialized developments, Fayetteville-based Modus Studio is designing the project, and it will be marketed to university students. Specialized opened Eco Modern Flats on Hill Avenue in 2011 and part of the Sterling Frisco apartments at Lafayette Street and West Avenue in August.
Designs presented include two five-story buildings facing Center Street. Chris Baribeau, Modus Studio architect, said the buildings will be wrap around courtyards, so a sheer 60-foot wall won’t be built like it is along Maple Street at Sterling Frisco. A third, three-story building with walk-up apartments for graduate students and a more than 400-space parking garage are planned along Hill Avenue.
Mims said 8- to 10-footwide sidewalks will be built along Center Street, where a sidewalk is crumbling and overgrown with weeds. New sidewalks are also required on Duncan and Hill avenues.
“It’s a very pedestrian-friendly design,” Mims said. The project is designed on 2.1 acres, and Mims said he wants to have it finished by fall 2015. The development must be approved by planning commissioners.
Modus Studio architects and engineers with McClelland Consulting Engineers are working to revise plans to make the project comply with new height and setback requirements under review by the City Council.
Also at Wednesday’s meeting, city staff reviewed plans for a 124-unit, 233-bedroom complex at Watson Street and St. Charles Avenue, across from the Dickson Street post office.
Rael Development of Newport Beach, Calif., is under contract to buy three houses and two parking lots from Collier Diversification Specialties, a company registered to Mel Collier of Collier Drug Stores. The five-story project, as designed, doesn’t have to meet new height limits proposed by Alderwoman Sarah Marsh because, according to Jeremy Pate, city Development Services director, plans were submitted before Sept. 10, when Marsh introduced her proposal to the City Council.
The project doesn’t require Planning Commission approval either, because it’s on less than 1 acre.
City engineers are requiring developers to preserve residential parking on Watson Street, the only parking available for several houses on the north side of the street. Thompson Avenue, a narrow alleyway west of the project site, will have to be widened, too.
After comments from city staff last month, McClelland engineers added a second entrance to a roughly 180-space parking garage on St. Charles Avenue.
After further revisions, the project can be approved administratively.
News, Pages 1 on 10/17/2013