In a high-profile downtown Wilmington development, Realtors are working to convert apartments to condominiums. 

River Place, a 13-story, mixed-use complex completed in 2020, was part of a public-private partnership between developer East West Partners and the city of Wilmington. 

The complex replaced a defunct parking deck with a new parking deck, 79 apartments, 92 condominiums and commercial tenants on the bottom floor. 

The owner of The Overlook apartments, East West, and River Place listing agent Keith Beatty decided late last year the timing was right to convert the apartments into more condos.

“Almost everything that’s being done downtown are apartments being built,” said Beatty of Intracoastal Realty’s Beatty Pittman Team. “So there are very few for-sale units in the downtown area.”

Twenty-three of the 79 apartments are under contract. The owners have to meet a minimum pre-sale threshold of 50% before buyers can get loans for their condo purchases, but Beatty said he can break the pre-sale into two phases.

“We would like to have 50% of Phase 1 pre-sold by the end of June so we can then submit for final Fannie Mae approval,” Beatty said.

The apartments that could soon be condos range in size from 550 square feet in a studio to 1,200 square feet for a two-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom unit, with prices from the low $300,000s to nearly $700,000, Beatty said.

The apartment dwellers were given first dibs on the condos. Eight of them opted to buy their units while others are protected by their leases until those leases expire, he said. Those who are renewing their apartment leases are getting six-month renewals.

Riverplace doesn’t allow its condos to be used as vacation rentals, requiring six-month leases from those condo owners who want to rent their units to others, Beatty said. The complex’s amenities include a rooftop pool and assigned parking spaces in the River Place parking deck.

Beatty said he believes this is "the first significant apartment conversion to condominiums in New Hanover County.”