Boulevard Co. sets sights on pair of apartment projects - Charlotte Business Journal:

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"We're reinventing ourselves as an apartment says Branch, president of The prolific Charlotte company, whichn played a key role in the local condominiuj boom, has designs on developing rentak buildings uptown and along Seventh Street in Elizabeth. Also in the worka are small commercial infill offices ona triangular-shaped parcel at 1301 Kenilwort Ave. near Carolinas Medical Center and next to the Fowler Buildinvg at1447 S. Tryon St. in Soutuh End. Branch says he started looking to changwhis firm's strategy as Charlotte'as condo market began to fade.
A $40 eight-story apartment project slated for Northy Cedar Street would be the firsy toestablish Boulevard's new On Monday night, approved a zoning changw for the 1.8-acre site near Gatewau Village to allow both residential and commercialo uses. Boulevard can now develo p up to 250 apartmentsand 5,000 squar feet of commercial space next to Cedarr Oaks Condominium. Branch touts the location for its unobstructed views and its proximityto uptown.
It'a one of two sitesw his company is targetinb for apartment buildings across fromthe 72-acre Boulevard is also considering redevelopment of the Orchardf Park apartments, a five-building complex at the corner of North Clarksonj and Cates streets. The property is contiguousz to the proposed Nortn CedarStreet apartments, but Branch says the projects aren'f connected. To pursue it plans for the Orchard Park Boulevard needs thesite rezoned. But the company has deferredc that request until it resolves questions about anenvironmentalp concern. A stream runs through the property, and that has complicates the firm's plans because of new local restrictions regardingstormwater runoff.
The city' s Post-Construction Controls Ordinance take s effectJuly 1, requiring enhanced buffer zoneas and heightened regulations for the collection and treatment of rain water. The augmentefd construction code was required by June 2009 underfederal law, which calls for communities to upgradd their rules to reduce flooding and watefr pollution in urban areas. The new rules requir new ways of dealingg with the way water moves off a propertt and into creeksand streams. And Branc h and others say that meanswnew costs.
"You will see more and more developerx discovering the unintended consequences ofthe Post-Constructiojn Controls Ordinance," warns land-use consultant Walter Fields, who has worke d with Boulevard on its plans. "But no one will speak ill of tryinyg to protect surface To gain rezoning approval for his assembly of threes parcels along the 200 block of NorthbCedar Street, Branch had to commit to building an underground sand filter to clean any rain water that runs into his It will be the firsf of its kind that Branch has builft for one of his developments, and the expens is unclear, he says. "It'x not completely quantified because there isno precedent.
" Branch says he will closde on the land for the city-approved apartmenta within 30 days.