When Brian Natwick, asenior developer manager with Crescent Resources, addressed the Raleigh City Council on Tuesday night, he began by acknowledging the long and winding route the company had taken to that point.
Crescent was seeking preliminary site plan approval for The Residences at Cameron Village, an ambitious project that would place 282 apartments, 16,000 square feet of retail and a 450-space parking deck on one of the most visible corners in central Raleigh.
"It's been a long journey," Natwick told the council.
And one that just might have a happy ending.
The council unanimously approved the project Tuesday night, bringing Cameron Village one step closer to adding a residential component to its popular mix of shops.
Crescent says it hopes to secure financing for the $45 million project by April and start construction in early May, with the first apartments being completed in the third quarter of 2012.
"We are very excited to see this landmark project come to fruition," Natwick said. "Residential has been the missing ingredient for Cameron Village."
The vote came more than three years after Crescent began its efforts to transform a 2.6-acre site at the northeast corner of the intersection of Oberlin Road and Clark Avenue.
Crescent was last before the council in October 2008, when it got approval to rezone the Cameron Village property to allow for the construction of taller buildings.
Eight months later the Charlotte company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, undone by a toxic combination of declining property values, slow sales and $1.4 billion in debt.
Crescent, a joint venture between Duke Energy and Morgan Stanley, developed everything from upscale communities to shopping centers to industrial parks.
When the company emerged from bankruptcy in June, it had shed $1 billion in debt and cut the company's value by two-thirds.
Its secured creditors, mostly banks, were paid 38 cents on the dollar and took over ownership of the company. Duke Energy, which created Crescent in 1969 to manage its land and timber, relinquished its 51 percent stake.
Since emerging from bankruptcy Crescent has begun developing projects in Florida, Tennessee and South Carolina.
The Residences at Cameron Village would span several properties, taking the place of the Village Citgo and a portion of a nearby parking deck and buildings at 400 and 410 Oberlin Road.
Praise for design
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the vote was the lack of opposition.
Councilmen Thomas Crowder and Russ Stephenson both voted against Crescent's rezoning request in 2008, saying the project violated thecity's Oberlin Road small-area plan.
But after about 45 minutes of asking questions on Tuesday, Crowder and Stephenson each praised the project as an example of the type of the development the city needs more of.
They were won over, they said, by the developer's ability to blend the six-story building and parking deck into the surrounding shopping center and neighborhoods.
"It does appear you've brought forward a high-quality project," Stephenson said.
The two architects are usually the stingiest when it comes to such compliments, a point acknowledged by fellow Councilwoman Mary-Ann Baldwin.
"I will say it's not often you get that type of compliment from Mr. Stephenson," she said.
