New County Apartment Project Breaks Ground
February 20, 2024
By RICHARD H. HRONIK III Daily News-Record | View original article
Charlottesville-based development firm Cathcart Group broke ground on a new 271-unit luxury apartment community in Rockingham County last month, according to a Monday press release.
The community, called The Wentworth, will be on a 19-acre site between Spring Road and Apple Valley Road, in the heart of the expanding Stone Port mixed-use area, according to the release.
The Wentworth will consist of five residential garden-style buildings, one building with three residential units above enclosed garage bays, and one four-story midrise with an integrated clubhouse. It will be the second non-undergraduate apartment community near Harrisonburg, following Cathcart’s Reserve at Stone Port, located just across the street from the new Wentworth site, according to the release.
The community will consist of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments ranging from $1,600 to $2,600 a month and feature in-unit washers and dryers. A pool and clubhouse will also be included.
Todd Dofflemyer, CEO of Cathcart Group, said the expansion in the area was spurred by growth at James Madison University.
“We obviously are a big believer in the Harrisonburg market and the amazing growth at JMU,” Dofflemyer explained. “We get the benefit of the renters-by-choice demographic that’s looking for a high-end place to live and doesn’t want all the negatives that go with homeownership.”
In addition, Dofflemyer said Cathcart was encouraged to continue after previous success in the area.
“We’ve been very successful with The Reserve at Stone Port and have maintained more or less 100 percent occupancy,” Dofflemyer said. “We had been looking for some additional land.”
Dofflemyer also said certain amenities in the community will make it more accessible for older tenants.
We owned a portion of this site, about three acres of it in total, behind the Bellaire at Stone Port,” Dofflemyer explained, “with the idea of introducing to the market an elevator service product that could really age in place, so [tenants] could live in the elevator service community and then make their way over and feed into Bellaire at Stone Port as they aged.”
The community is scheduled to open by Summer 2025, according to Dofflemyer, with pre-lease set to begin six months ahead of opening.
In the future, Dofflemyer said the firm will be happy to grow alongside the city.
“We’d love to grow as the area grows, but I’d say, with this project being introduced to the market, based on our market studies, we feel it’s going to meet the demand that’s currently in the marketplace,” Dofflemyer said. “I don’t really know that there’s going to really be room for additional units anywhere in the near future, but that’s all subject to change.”