CHARLESTON, SC—Construction is set to begin on a luxury multifamily community in Mount Pleasant. Middle Street Partners struck a deal with Memphis-based MAA in which MAA will purchase the land from Middle Street and provide construction financing. Middle Street will develop the multifamily project.

“Mount Pleasant delivered less than 300 new apartment units over the past 10 years and actually lost close to 1,000 units to condo conversion over that same timeframe,” Ryan Knapp, co-founder of Middle Street, tells GlobeSt.com. “Meanwhile, the population of Mount Pleasant has grown 45 percent.”

Plans call for a total of 270 upscale apartments and a two-story, 8,000-square-foot
amenity center that will be home to a fitness center, resident lounge, business center and resort-style pool. The property will also feature outdoor community areas and detached garages. Each building will offer private outdoor courtyard areas.

“The Charleston market, and Mt. Pleasant in particular, has been underserved for quite a while with regard to quality class A apartment communities,” Adam Monroe, co-founder of Middle Street, said in a statement. “We think there is a very strong demand for this type of housing in this location.”

Designed by Dallas-based Humphreys  & Partners, the project will feature architecture consistent with its Charleston/Lowcountry surroundings. Middle Street named Jacksonville, FL-based Summit Contractors as the general contractor. The first apartments and clubhouse will be complete in early 2013. The entire community is anticipated to be complete by summer 2013.

“This location, in such close proximity to downtown, is surrounded by some of Charleston’s most desirable residential neighborhoods,” Knapp says. “Finding infill sites large enough to facilitate a surface parked site plan is difficult. In the case of this project, we assembled several smaller parcels to create a site large enough for surface parking.”