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Developer Vic Remmers isn’t having any trouble staying busy these days.

Just weeks after verifying plans for a 70- to 80-unit development on North Vancouver Avenue, Remmers has confirmed he is under contract to purchase the Cartopia food cart lot at 1207 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd., where he intends to build a four-story apartment building with 27 to 30 units.

The project is still in the early stages of design – Remmers’ VWR Development has hired TVA Architects – but the goal is to break ground by the start of 2015. The building will have a lot of competition by the time it comes online – Barry & Associates estimates that 12,000 to 14,000 new apartment units will open in the metro area by the end of 2015. That could put downward pressure on rents.

“I think it’s a concern for everybody because there are so many apartment buildings going up right now,” Remmers said. “The good news is there’s a lot of people, and a lot of in-migration going on … There’s high demand and so we’re hoping that’s going to continue. We’re also trying to get into great locations where we know people want to live.”

One of those locations is at the corner of Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Mason Street, where Remmers recently pulled a building permit for a 36-unit development. He also expects to start construction on a 68-unit project on North Overlook Boulevard in July.

Darrin Amico of Hasson Company Realtors informed Remmers of the Southeast Hawthorne property opportunity. Buoyed by the success of a 30-unit apartment development at Southeast Morrison and 16th Avenue that’s now nearly 100 percent leased, he took advantage.

The new development won’t have vehicle parking, but it will offer bike storage, ground-floor retail space and a central courtyard for tenants and customers. Those amenities and other high-end ones, Remmers said, will help differentiate the building from others sprouting up. He said TVA – the architect for the Overlook Boulevard, Vancouver Avenue and MLK Boulevard projects – has been instrumental in that effort.

“Those guys are just excellent in figuring out ways to make the building perform,” he said.