High-end apartments coming to West End | Local News

Luxury apartments going up between Brookstown Avenue and Green Street will meet a demand for the advantages in amenities and design that a new building can offer, one of the developers of West End Station says.

The $35 million development will provide 229 apartments in a block that’s close to both the center of downtown and the BB&T Ballpark, said Porter Jones, the president of DPJ Residential, a Charlotte-based developer doing its first project in Winston-Salem.

“We think Winston-Salem is in the very early stages of growth compared to Charlotte and Raleigh that have experienced a lot of urban revitalization,” Jones said. “We are attracted by the (Wake Forest) Innovation Quarter and what is going on with Wake Forest and Baptist downtown. That is a great incubator for growth companies.”

DPJ Residential and Chaucer Creek Capital of Raleigh are going 50/50 on the development. Chaucer Creek Capital owns the Gallery Lofts apartment community in downtown Winston-Salem, but the West End Station is the first development here for DPJ Residential.

Work on the parking section of West End Station is just starting, and it should take about 24 months for the project to finish construction.

Jones said West End Station will have a saltwater swimming pool and a fitness center, a two-story clubhouse with an outdoor terrace and gas grills, and two elevated courtyards above the parking deck on the lower floor of the building that faces Brookstown Avenue. In all, there will be 300 parking spaces.

Offering a mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments, the development will have rent ranges from $1,200 to $1,300 per month for the one-bedroom units, Jones said, to $1,600 to $1,650 for the two-bedroom units.

“We will definitely be one of the higher rental properties in Winston-Salem,” Jones said, “Hopefully we will have a very diverse group of renters, from young professionals working downtown to potentially retirees or downsizers.”

The building designers are with Axiom Architecture of Charlotte. Project architect Bryan Harris of Axiom said the building will have a three-story facade facing Green Street, stepping up to four stories of apartments on the Brookstown side.

Because the land slopes off on that side, the presence of a lower-level parking garage means the building will be five stories high on its western side facing Brookstown.

Although the building is a new one, Harris said it is designed to fit in with its surroundings.

“With the masonry choices, we have tried to stick with the heritage around the area,” Harris said. “We tried to go for that industrial vibe that you see going on in Winston-Salem.”

Jones said that because the building is new, it can be better designed for apartments to suit the preferences of some residents. Those old buildings might have big windows and eclectic designs, he said, but they weren’t built for apartments and may have some inefficient floor plans or parking arrangements.

“We will be competing with other properties in the general area, but most renters will either choose to live in an old building with cool features or want to embrace a new development with the latest and greatest appliance package,” Jones said.

West End Station occupies part of a section of town that was once planned as “Unity Place,” which in 2003 was announced as an office, entertainment, arts and residential development stretching from Broad Street to Brookstown Avenue and from Second to Fourth streets, including a planned corporate headquarters of Krispy Kreme.

By 2005, corporate troubles at Krispy Kreme had basically put an end to Unity Place. West End Village emerged to take its place with a plan for condominiums, townhomes, and office and commercial spaces. Condominiums were built at the corner of Fourth and Broad, but the 2008 recession stopped further development at that time.

Jeff MacIntosh, the member of the city council who represents the neighborhood where West End Station is located, said West End Station is well placed to fill a gap.

“To me, it is filling in that gap of unused property and knitting the west end of town more to downtown,” MacIntosh said. “We are going to see that coming together more.”