By Madeleine Winer, Courier-Journal
The clubhouse is open and the first tenants have started to move into The Breakwater, a luxury apartment complex still under construction in New Albany.
The complex, located at 411 East Spring Street, began accepting applications in mid-October last year, and 18 tenants moved in at the beginning of January, said Brian Moore, Marketing & Communications Director for development firm Flaherty & Collins Properties. The complex’s clubhouse, the former Coyle Chevrolet showroom, also opened mid-January, and he said 18 more applications for apartments are in the process of getting approved.
Austin Carmony, the firm’s vice president of development, said the complex’s 66-unit residential building, where tenants have already started moving in, was completed in December. The second 125-unit building will be done in April. Rent for the units ranges from $650 to $1,650.
The renovated former Coyle showroom will house retail and amenities including a heated pool, gym, grilling stations, fire pit and a dog park. Carmony said no one has signed on to fill the space yet, but he thinks a restaurant would be ideal in the location.
Moore said the leasing office has also moved into the building, and six apartments will also be located on its second floor.
Kim Wilhite, a Breakwater resident, said she has been living in The Breakwater for less than a month and is looking forward to taking advantage of its amenities when they’re fully finished. She moved there because the of the complex’s proximity to her work, which is right across the street in the AT&T building. Before, she traveled to New Albany from where she lived in Orange County, Ind. outside of Paoli.
“I get like three hours of my life back every day,” she said. “I’d like to be able to, once it’s warmer, walk downtown, go to the restaurants and the winery and all the other things down there.”
Carmony said New Albany was the perfect site for the apartment complex because it is close to the city’s restaurants and bars downtown. He said the complex was a public-private partnership with the city, which helped the firm get a $3.3 million state tax credit by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation.
New Albany also contributed $4.3 million to the project, the Courier-Journal previously reported. The money will come from a tax increment financing bond approved by the city council. It was originally approved for up to $4.9 million but came back at $4.3 million.