Comments on: Apartments South by South Main

By: Dave Briggman

Dave Briggman — Fri, 21 May 2010 16:41:54 +0000

I was thinking that, but were I to write it, it might have ended up in moderation. :-)

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By: Jamie Smith

Jamie Smith — Fri, 21 May 2010 12:32:31 +0000

Charlie, I hope you’re not doing that on Mr. Litten’s time!

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By: Jamie Smith

Jamie Smith — Fri, 21 May 2010 12:31:23 +0000

Hugh, Rodney and Larry never met a developer they didn’t like.

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By: Deb SF

Deb SF — Thu, 20 May 2010 17:46:35 +0000

This presentation was the first time I’ve heard an explicit public discussions about going after a specific segment of the student housing market (though of course we know student housing is a segmented market, just as single-family housing is). And that discussion wasn’t so much part the original presentation, as it was shared in response to a PC question.

Some of the details the developer covered in his presentation about the construction plans indicate that this isn’t going to be ticky-tacky development, stuff that won’t age well and stand up to the hard use that students put these complexes through. In response to one question about the safety issues about decks and stairwells in student housing, the developer indicated that they will (in some cases) exceed the minimum standards for joist placement, stuff like that. They’re going to build in order to market quality, so I’m guessing this complex will look a lot better as time goes on than some of the older ones do now.

Doesn’t solve the Hunters Ridge problem, though. Makes that whole issue of drawing kids out of older complexes worse. It’s the “what do we do with X when students don’t want to live there anymore” problem.

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By: Barkley Rosser

Barkley Rosser — Thu, 20 May 2010 13:26:20 +0000

BTW, just for the record, I have no problem saying that private businesses may be making bad decisions. I said that about the landlord who drove Old Dominion coffee out of business with a rent increase, and I note that the ground floor where Old Dominion was located remains vacant. Brilliant stuff.

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By: Barkley Rosser

Barkley Rosser — Thu, 20 May 2010 03:49:10 +0000

Deb,

Well, I know that Urban Exchange is actually pretty well filled up, although a lot of that is Rosetta Stone workers who may not be all that keen on living off at the south end of town. Maybe these folks have done some careful market research, although there have also been quite a few consulting companies that have played some funny games with numbers around here before for credulous clients.

I will grant that (although neither you nor anybody else called me on it) high income students are not in Hunter’s Ridge, so the vacancies there prove little about the high income student market. So, maybe these people can pull it off and maybe it is better than alternatives given the unfortunate past rezoning. But it is also true that JMU is likely to have slower growth in the near future than was previously forecast. Guess we shall just have to wait and see.

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By: Deb SF

Deb SF — Thu, 20 May 2010 01:32:30 +0000

Barkley- yes, they do. They absolutely do believe that. This is “class A” housing, and they believe there is excess demand (I think they termed it undersupply in the presentation) in this niche of the market. They’ve done an extensive bit of market research.

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By: Scott Rogers

Scott Rogers — Thu, 20 May 2010 00:26:07 +0000

Barkley: I definitely agree — I wonder whether the developer is aware of current market conditions. It seems rather unlikely that they’ll be able to lease this property.

Perhaps they’ll start it (like the Stone Spring Road project), and then stop once they realize market conditions aren’t conducive!

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By: Scott Rogers

Scott Rogers — Thu, 20 May 2010 00:24:45 +0000

Dan — I’m not sure I follow. Where are the college complexes that aren’t close to campus to which the city has built four-lane roads?

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