A long-planned apartment project about two miles east of Northlake Mall will break ground next year.

ContraVest Development Partners out of Altamonte Springs, Florida, last week acquired 14.5 acres at the southwest intersection of West W.T. Harris Boulevard and Old Statesville Road. There, ContraVest plans to build a $40 million apartment development, The Addison One15, which will include 271 one-, two- and three-bedroom units.

ContraVest paid nearly $2.5 million for the land, which included six parcels.

This is the second deal closed this year in the local market by ContraVest, which also acquired 26 acres near Concord Mills to build 339 apartments.

Addison One15 will include attached garages, a pool, cybercafe, fitness center, pet spa and dog park, as well as “work-at-home” private office spaces, according to ContraVest. The land was rezoned about a year ago.

Bill Ziegler, founder of local real estate firm Ziegler & Co., represented ContraVest in part of the purchase and sale of the property. Malcolm McLean and Andrew Tanneberger of The Providence Group represented one of the sellers.

Ziegler said he had been working with ContraVest for about three years to get the deal to closing. The site went through a lengthy rezoning process and required coordination with the N.C. Department of Transportation, which maintains both roads and recently completed infrastructure work at the intersection.

The project is still in permitting and site-plan review, but ContraVest will likely break ground in the spring, Ziegler said.

It’s the latest apartment development in or around University City, which has seen a number of multifamily projects deliver since the Lynx Blue Line was extended to UNC Charlotte. Since then, big projects like Centene Corp.’s East Coast headquarters have committed to the area.

“Everything was going infill or South End or south Charlotte,” said Ziegler, who works with a number of apartment developers. “The University area was the last to blossom. Centene and other projects in the hopper have recently been approved, so we’re going to see a lot more apartments up that way.”

Through the uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic, apartments have been widely viewed as a safer bet for investors, especially in places seeing rapid growth like Charlotte. Ziegler and other brokers say apartment groups are increasingly looking for land in the suburbs, including outside of Mecklenburg County, to build surface-parked developments and workforce housing.

Previous ContraVest projects in Charlotte include The Addison at South Tryon and Courtney Oaks, now called Cottonwood Reserve Apartments.