WILMINGTON — A vacant former cinema located between Market Street and Kerr Avenue could see redevelopment if proposed plans get the green light.
READ MORE: Cinema Drive movie theater to shutter this month
AMC Theater at 111 Cinema Drive closed last October. Now, Massachusetts asset management company The RMR Group and local firm Paramounte Engineering have submitted site plans to build eight apartment buildings on more than 8.5 acres, with the ground floor of building one comprising office and retail space.
The RMR Group has been in business for three decades, with a focus on commercial real estate, and has a $41-billion portfolio featuring residential complexes, senior living facilities, hotels, and medical offices. Working with thousands of real estate professionals, it has 35 offices nationwide, its closest to the Tar Heel State in neighboring South Carolina and Virginia.
Locally, RMR lists Morningside of Wilmington, an assisted living facility, and 3501 Amsterdam Way among its almost five dozen properties managed in North Carolina. RMR also oversees five-star senior facilities, such as Summit Place at Southpark in Charlotte and Fox Hollow Senior Living in Southern Pines, as well hotels like Sonesta Select at the Raleigh-Durham Airport and Hyatt Place in Charlotte at Lake Pointe.
However, according to a design adjustment application submitted in October to the City of Wilmington, this project is slated for student housing. Port City Daily reached out to The RMR Group, managing the project on behalf of SVCN 2 LLC, to learn more but did not hear back by press.
The complex, within 1.4 miles of UNCW, is located near other off-campus housing, such Aspire 349 and Redpoint. The university’s student population continues to grow, increasing by 300 between 2022 and 2023. It enrolled its largest freshman class in the fall with 2,370 incoming students, bringing the university total to 17,843 enrollees.
The Cinema Drive land is zoned regional business, but developers are requesting a special use permit and district — commercial district mixed-use — the design adjustment application notes.
“CDMU is a use that can occur within the RB zoning district, as long as it meets the standards,” according to city spokesperson Dylan Lee.
The apartment building area is more than 84,400 square feet, to construct three- and four-stories, with 146 leasable units consisting of 97 four-bedrooms, 12 three bedrooms and 37 two bedrooms.
There will be roughly 10,000 commercial square feet, with a little more than 400 parking spaces in total, eight being electric vehicle-supported and 11 ADA compliant, plus 30 for bicycles.
A traffic impact analysis has been waived for the project; TIAs are required when developments are estimated to bring 100 trips or more a day to the vicinity. The project will bring 89 morning peak hour trips and 186 evening peak hour trips, which is almost 40 less from when it was a movie theater, documents show.
According to emails sent from City Traffic Engineer Denys Vielkanowaitz, the analysis to grant the waiver was based on the ITE Trip Generation Manual.
“Further justification of the TIA Waiver: The intersections of Market St @ Cinema Dr and Kerr Ave @ Cinema Dr have recently been improved through NCDOT’s U-3338B (Kerr Ave Widening Project), where is it unlikely additional improvements would be necessary at the most adjacent signalized intersections,” he wrote.
The Market Street and Cinema Drive area has seen a decrease in vehicles by roughly 2,000 in 15 years, according to North Carolina Department of Transportation data, which shows around 39,000 trips daily, both north and southbound. Near Kerr Avenue and Cinema Drive — the road students take to get to UNCW — there are around 27,000 vehicles that travel both north and southbound, the latter increasing by roughly 4,000 cars since 2009.
All streets surrounding the complex will be privately owned and maintained, according to project documents. An offsite stormwater pond will capture runoff through drains and pipes eventually reaching Burnt Mill Creek. Site plans show the removal of roughly 80 trees.
The development design adjustment application also includes a request for two items:
- To adjust the length of private driveways to extend beyond the 500-foot limit
- To not plant trees within the right-of-way, as required
According to the applicant, the curvature of Cinema Drive, which connects from Market Street around to Kerr Avenue, prevents the 500-foot driveway compliance to “still provide safe driveway locations, needed parking, and close access to the proposed buildings.” To meet the specifications would require the reduction of 60 parking spaces as well.
A request is included to forgo planting trees within the right-of-way, though the developers note there will still be significant landscaping in the city’s streetscape:
“Existing sidewalk and utility infrastructure exists between the property line and street. In addition, the planting of landscaping along the curvature of Cinema Drive could hinder sight distances in an area where visibility is more of a significant factor to transportation safety.”
The project will be reviewed by the city’s technical review committee on Jan. 2, 2025.
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