Student Housing Business

MAR-APR 2015

Student Housing Business is the voice of the student housing industry.

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SHB INTERVIE W MARCH/APRIL 2015 STUDENT HOUSING BUSINESS .COM 72 water landscape, it's electrical vehicle park- ing stations and blends seamlessly into the Oregonian context. The property opened last fall and is 100 percent occupied currently and over 60 percent pre-leased for next fall already and has become one of the most sought after rental properties in Eugene. Another one of my favorites we recently completed is Infnite Apartments in Chicago. Infnite Apartments is an award-winning, historic adaptive reuse of under-occupied offce space consisting of three landmarked, early 19th Century build- ings. Now interconnected by a sky bridge, the property opened as modern high-end student apartments consisting of ground-foor retail, 124 apartments with 481 bedrooms, collab- orative study lounges, state of the art ftness center and rooftop club room and outdoor roof deck with barbecue grills. The fully fur- nished apartments include quartz counter- tops, European modern cabinetry, porcelain tile bath and showers, fat-screen TVs and closet organizers. Infnite is at the center of the bustling Chicago Loop Universities campus at Jackson and Wabash and serves students from over a dozen area institutions including DePaul, Columbia, Roosevelt, Art Institute, Kendall, John Marshall, Robert Morris and many more. Identity Apartments in Seattle, adjacent to the dormitories at University of Washington, consists of two separate micro apartment buildings of 100 bedrooms each built on 8,000-square-foot parcels. The fve frame over two concrete structures feature micro apartments with custom Murphy bed systems, compete with integral USB ports, LED reading lighting, bookshelves and armoires. SHB: You have projects not just in student housing, but in other real estate sectors. How does the portfolio break down by sector? Smith: CA is comprised predominantly of stu- dent housing with asset value in the sector exceeding $4.5 billion by 2016; in offce we have $1.5 billion; multifamily about $500 million; senior living about $400 million; and retail/ hospitality about $100 million. I envision CA Student Living will continue to dominate the overall portfolio but foresee strong growth in our offce, senior living and multifamily divi- sions over the next three to fve years. SHB: How would you describe your role with- in the organization? Smith: I serve as the chief operating offcer for the company and assist CEO Tom Scott with the management and operations of all CA Student Living's departments (investment, development and property management) and act as an integral link between these depart- ments to execute CA's overall strategic goals. I oversee all new business generation (site acquisitions and co-venture partnerships) as well as direct all design, development and con- struction decisions to bring properties online on budget and on schedule. SHB: What does CA look for in a property? Smith: CA seeks core-infll, pedestrian-friend- ly sites within four to six blocks from a large fagship university where can build vertically. Depending on the zoning density, height and parking restrictions, we need anywhere from 0.5 acres to 2.5 acres for new development. We have built on as small as one-ffth of an acre at the University of Washington but our average site is probably two-thirds of an acre. We have closed and cleaned up a few former gas sta- tions, dry cleaners and concrete plants and fnd a competitive advantage in not being scared off by a bit of cleanup work.

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