Article Courtesy of Inside Biz http://insidebiz.com/news/princess-anne-growing-where-southern-pines-going
By Nate Delesline III
nate.delesline@insidebiz.com
Southern Pines Apartments, a 240-unit, 10-building luxury apartment community in the Princess Anne Commons area in Virginia Beach, is slated to house its first residents by late next summer, developer Franklin Johnston Group recently announced.
Amenities in the development’s residential units will include 9-foot ceilings, stainless steel appliances, granite counter tops, ceramic floors and high-efficiency HVAC systems. Many of the homes overlook the Virginia Beach National Golf Course.
The gated community also will have buildings that feature South Carolina Low Country architectural design elements, such as covered porches. In addition, the community also will have a two-story clubhouse, fitness center, walking trails, dog park, bowling alley and pool deck with grill stations.
Leasing for the first apartments at Southern Pines will begin in the spring of 2016, and rents are expected to start at $1,100 per month.
“The Low Country architecture of the buildings and clubhouse will create a community where neighbors become friends and will blend well with the roots of the Princess Anne area,” Taylor Franklin, a company founder and principal, said in an email. Officials gathered last week to celebrate the project’s groundbreaking. The company plans to invest $44 million in Southern Pines, said Caroline Forehand, marketing director for the Franklin Johnston Group.
“The submarket around the property with the growth that’s happened in health care and education and technology all around the municipal buildings has made that location just perfect,” Forehand said.
“The demand for apartments in Princess Anne Commons is strong,” Tom Johnston, the company’s co-founder and chief development officer, said in an announcement. “It’s the most exciting growth area for Virginia’s largest city and is a key element in the city’s overall master plan. We are already experiencing demand for apartments and look forward to accepting applications for leases in the middle of next year.”
Founded in 2012, Franklin Johnston Group has continued to expand its owned and managed portfolio with more than 10,000 units in 60 communities from Northern Virginia to Atlanta. The Virginia Beach-based company employs more than 350 people throughout the mid-Atlantic and Southeast and has more than $1 billion in owned and managed assets.
Although the Princess Anne area is home to Virginia Beach’s city government and courts complex and several large employers are in the neighborhood, “there’s not much multi-family, and a lot of people are opting to have a quality of life where they don’t have a large house and spend a lot of time maintaining it,” Forehand said.
In the post-recession era, tighter lending rules also mean that home buying can involve a more rigorous and arduous financing process. And a fringe benefit of apartment living is ease of move-in.
Unlike purchasing a home, no financing or lending process is required.
With Southern Pines, Franklin Johnston Group has announced three new communities in Hampton Roads in the last year.
The company also is developing two Norfolk communities, The Pointe at Pickett Farm, a 300-unit waterfront property and The Crossings at Berkley Station, a 156-unit gated apartment community.
