Developer planning 280-unit apartment community in North Charleston

Work is scheduled to start within the month on an 280-unit apartment community in the Ingleside Plantation tract in North Charleston, an official said this week.

The rental community, which has not been named yet, will be adjacent to the Ingleside Plantation Apartments on Blue Horse Road and U.S. Highway 78, said Larry Waters of the Houston-based developer, Housing 2000 Inc.

The new apartment community is set to come out of the ground as rising occupancy rates in the region have triggered a sea of new developments.

Waters said his firm’s latest project will mimic much of the adjacent three-story Ingleside Plantation, but with more space and enhancements. Housing 2000 also developed the existing complex.

“That was a great project,” Waters said. “This will be a little bit better.”

Built in 2008, the 304-unit community is surrounded by trees and marshland, It one of the first developments in the 1,760-acre Ingleside tract, which is envisioned to house a combination of retail space, offices, hotels and housing as it is built out within the next several decades.

The Lowcountry’s rental market has benefited as the economic downturn combined with the foreclosure crisis have driven up demand for apartments.

Real Data, a Charlotte-based firm that tracks Charleston’s multifamily housing market, reported that the region’s apartment occupancy rate tightened to 93 percent in September, up from about 85 percent a few years ago.

The firm also counted roughly 1,550 units under construction in the region as of September, with another 4,700 units proposed for development.

The Housing 2000 development is taking shape as planners of the Ingleside Plantation tract seek changes in North Charleston’s current planned development district zoning, allowing them more flexibility as the project unfolds.

City Council could vote on the proposed amendment next year.

The owner of the Ingleside tract is a company formed by German automotive parts magnate Albert Weber that paid $17.9 million for the property in 1997.

Reach Tyrone Richardson at 843-937-5550 and follow him on Twitter @tyrichardsonPC.