By David Purtell

david.purtell@salisburypost.com

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to show that S.L. Nusbaum Realty will manage the new Civic Park apartments, which will be called Brenner Crossing. The Salisbury Housing Authority is a co-owner of the property. 

The redevelopment of the Civic Park Apartments will start a new phase this summer.

The demolition of the old apartments, built in 1953, off Standish Street will start later this summer while work finishes up on the first phase of the project.

Phase one is the three buildings along Brenner Avenue. The two- and three-story garden-style apartments should be completed by the end of the summer, according to Sam Foust, executive director of the Salisbury Housing Authority.

The new apartments will be called Brenner Crossing and will be managed by S.L. Nusbaum Realty.  The housing authority is a co-owner of the property along with the investors and developers.

Phase one will have 80 apartments that have either one, two or three bedrooms. The leasing office/community building will be behind phase one and will have a workout facility, laundry room and a computer lab.

Phase two will have 90 units broken up into townhouses, duplexes and fourplexes with one, two, three and four bedrooms. Phase two will also have lots of green space with walking trails, picnic areas and playgrounds.

The families who were living in the old Civic Park Apartments, which had 72 units, will have first choice whether they want to live in the new development. The families were relocated to other properties managed by the housing authority in the city to make way for the new construction.

Foust said he thinks the new development will be something the whole town can be proud of, adding he has already received several compliments about phase one.

“I think it will fill up quick,” he said about the new apartments. He said a market study conducted as part of the tax-credit application found Salisbury and the rest of county has a huge need for both public housing and mixed-income housing. The Salisbury Housing Authority, which manages eight properties with a total of 545 units, currently has 250 families on its waiting list, he said.

The new Civic Park Apartments will have its own waiting list because it includes public housing and mixed-income housing, Foust said. The goal of mixed-income housing is to have people and families with various incomes living in the same development — and avoid having a high concentration of people with low or no income.

There are people in the community waiting to get into affordable housing, he said.

The buildings in phase two will resemble single-family homes. This is by design, Foust said, so the new development will blend better with the rest of the neighborhood.

Two grocery stores, Aldi and Harris Teeter, off Jake Alexander Boulevard will be within 1 mile of the complex.

Phase one was awarded a $700,000 tax credit from the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2013. Phase two won a $765,000 tax credit last year. The tax credits go to the developers and investors behind the new development. Laurel Street Residential of Charlotte is the master developer and is working in partnership with the housing authority.

As part of the requirements to receive the tax credits. Phase one has to be finished and fully leased by the end of this year, while phase two has to be complete and fully leased by the end of 2016.

The first building in phase one could be finished by the end of June, with the other two completed in the following months. Once a building is finished, the apartments in it will start to be leased, Faust said.

Contact Reporter David Purtell 704-797-4264.