BLYTHEWOOD – A 56-unit apartment campus is planned for downtown Blythewood on 4 acres fronting on Highway 21 behind the Langford-Nord House. The developer of the project, Prestwick Companies of Atlanta, represented by Devin Blankenship, Senior Development Manager, will seek approval of the project’s site plan from the Town’s Planning Commission on Monday evening.
No rezoning is required for the property since the land is already zoned Rural (RU), according to Michael Criss, the Town’s Planning Consultant.
In a phone interview on Tuesday, Blankenship told The Voice that the campus will consist of one-, two- and three-bedroom brick apartments and include a playground, parking and a community building for residents. Pending approval from the Town Council, Blankenship said he hopes to break ground the first of January and be in full operation by fall of 2016.
While Blankenship referred to the apartments as affordable housing, he said he wanted to stress that they are not Section 8 housing.
“We are not going to be building an ugly square box in the middle of Blythewood,” Blankenship told The Voice. “We build market-rate quality type apartments and they are leased with the federal/state tax credit program as affordable housing.”
Blankenship said his company has a long history of developing affordable housing in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Texas. “We put something on the ground that we can be proud of.”
Clayton Ingram, a spokesperson for the South Carolina Housing Finance Authority, told The Voice that the company’s construction costs are offset by a $699,052 federal tax credit over a 10-year period.
“The developer is able to pass along that savings to tenants in the form of lower rental prices,” Ingram said. “Residents are required to have an income between 50 and 60 percent of the mean income for the area where the apartments are located. Rental prices are then determined on a sliding scale based on the percentage of a tenant’s income. One-bedroom apartments will range between $485 and $500.”
“It’s going to be very nice,” Blankenship said. “I think it’s something the town will be proud of.”
The Planning Commission meets at 6 p.m., Oct. 5 at the Manor.
