Student Housing Business

MAR-APR 2015

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

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MARCH/APRIL 2015 STUDENT HOUSING BUSINESS .COM 90 MARKET PROFILE: COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS SuStainable Growth Developers are building student housing at Texas A&M; at a speed proportional to the fagship university's rapidly expanding population so no one's left without a bed. By Scott Reid E Everything is bigger in Texas, as the saying goes, and that certainly goes for Texas A&M; in College Station, the fagship institution of the state's A&M; university system. The list of superlatives that describe the 140-year old research university is long: largest university in Texas, fourth-largest in the United States and in the top 20 American research institutes in funding, to name a few. Finding places in College Station for all stu- dents to live sounds like it could be a challenge, but off and on campus, developers and the university are rising to the occasion to ensure all students can fnd a place to live in order to focus on what really counts: academics. Campus Life The university is making an effort to ensure all incoming freshmen who want to live on campus have the ability to do so. "Our pro- vost has asked us to do what we are calling Freshman Priority Housing," says Dr. Carol Binzer, director of administrative and support services in Residence Life. "As the freshman class grew, the percentage of freshman-orient- ed beds didn't grow. We're trying to get back to that same percentage. Our ideal would be to give everybody who wanted to live on cam- pus the opportunity to live on campus." Binzer believes that when Aggies are decid- ing where to live, much of their decision- making process depends on tradition. Many students have relatives who attended A&M; and often want to live where those relatives lived during their college career. If the family member went to the school before the school's enormous growth, they may have lived on campus and this could infuence the present- day student's decision. Given the ongoing amount of development in College Station and neighboring Bryan off- campus, the university develops properties that may be attractive to students based on their location on campus. "Our moniker is to live at the heart of the Aggie experience," says Binzer, and living in an apartment or resi- dence hall on the campus is good for students heavily involved in student organizations and athletics. Freshmen don't have to live on campus but many do for those reasons, as do sophomores and juniors, who have often cultivated friend- ships through their time living on campus, and cite community, as well as safety and security, for why they continue to live on the campus. "I'm having a perfect storm [allocating housing]," says Binzer. "In addition to the increasing number of freshmen and upper- classmen living on campus, the Corps of Cadets is increasing and taking back some of their buildings previously loaned to civilian students." "It's an art, as well as a science," she says. "We believe strongly that living on campus gives you an edge and are glad when students also feel that way." New projeCts "Lord willing and if the creek don't rise," says Binzer, this fall will see the opening on campus of White Creek Apartments, aimed at single Texas A&M; students of all age groups. Located on the west side of the sprawling, 5,500-acre campus near the Ag Life Sciences building and White Creek, each of the more than 1,260 White Creek Apartments is fully furnished with all utilities included. Each apartment includes a washer and dryer and has private bedrooms. The location of White Creek Apartments is touted by the university as great for business, veterinary, agriculture, George Bush School of Government and Public Service and medi- cal students, and is only minutes from the Rec Center, intramural felds and Reed Arena. Each student is liable for the rent of their bedroom, selecting either a 9.5-month con- tract or 12-month contract. The foor plans include one-bedroom and four-bedroom units with bathroom parity, or four-bedroom, two- bath units and two-bedroom, one-bathroom units. The one-bedroom, one-bath units are 401 square feet and cost nearly $5,000 per semester, while the price per bedroom in a 1,117-square-foot four-bedroom, two-bath- room unit is more than $3,600 per semester. White Creek Apartments are being devel- oped in a public-private partnership with Dallas-based Balfour Beatty. Currently there is both a wait list and notifcation list to live in the apartments this fall. asset rouNd-up Off-campus housing is growing at a rapid rate in College Station. Atlanta-based Peak Campus Management currently manages three properties in the market: 2818 Place, Parkway Place and the Woodlands of College Station, each built between 2007 and 2009, and each with an average occupancy over 95 percent. The frst phase of Northpoint Crossing, developed by Capstone Collegiate Communities and located adjacent to Texas A&M;, opened in fall of 2014. New York-based Vesper Holdings entered College Station in 2011 with the purchase of Campus View, an 867-bed, 478-unit complex developed in the 1970s. Located within one mile of campus, Campus View is more than 90 percent occupied.

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