College Park - News, Events, Updates, Questions and Developments Etc. (Columbia: condominium, appliances)

[hikerMD]

Originally Posted by adelphi_sky

I'm absolutely floored at how many separate projects are under construction in South Campus alone. A decade ago we were happy to have two or three on the entire Rt. 1 strip. Now there are four just within about a 3 block area.

Actually five!

1. Aspen Heights
2. The Hub
3. Union on Knox
4. The Standard
5. The Aster

And if the City hall had not been so efficient getting it done, it would have been six simultaneous projects in a quarter mile radius!

With those projects, South campus will maximize its density very nicely. I wonder how the market for off-campus student housing will evolve. Despite the very high prices all the new apartments have, they consistently seem to be able to maintain very low vacancy rates . But in the next three years 4,000 more beds are coming online, so they may have a harder time filling them up. With some luck, that will moderate their prices, which would also put a ceiling on the less nice apartments downstream.

The Aster is in a different position though, since it caters non-students. The only rivals close to campus are The Domain and The Alloy, and both have 0% vacancy I believe. If they manage to fill The Aster, that will be a good step towards a critical mass of year-round residents in College Park, which can lead to further improvements.

[hikerMD]

Originally Posted by RickyRoma

Is something being built on the spot of the last Knox box or will that just be an open space? Seems like an odd place to build right in front of the Terrapin Row complex

Yep, one of the two buildings of Aspen Heights will be wedged there. It is the building on the right of the picture I posted a few days ago

Originally Posted by RickyRoma

Article on new Hillel building

https://umdsbs.wordpress.com/2021/12...ars-of-delays/

I was wondering what was the status of that project, thanks!

[RickyRoma]

Thanks. Curious to know how many beds the Knox Boxes held vs the total beds after all that sectors development is done. Also anyone know what will become of the current Hillel location?

Staggering how many more students will be living on campus or adjacent to campus compared to 10 years ago.

[adelphi_sky]

Originally Posted by hikerMD

Actually five!

1. Aspen Heights
2. The Hub
3. Union on Knox
4. The Standard
5. The Aster

And if the City hall had not been so efficient getting it done, it would have been six simultaneous projects in a quarter mile radius!

With those projects, South campus will maximize its density very nicely. I wonder how the market for off-campus student housing will evolve. Despite the very high prices all the new apartments have, they consistently seem to be able to maintain very low vacancy rates . But in the next three years 4,000 more beds are coming online, so they may have a harder time filling them up. With some luck, that will moderate their prices, which would also put a ceiling on the less nice apartments downstream.

The Aster is in a different position though, since it caters non-students. The only rivals close to campus are The Domain and The Alloy, and both have 0% vacancy I believe. If they manage to fill The Aster, that will be a good step towards a critical mass of year-round residents in College Park, which can lead to further improvements.

Trader Joe's is a step in the right direction to attract non-student residents.

[adelphi_sky]

Originally Posted by RickyRoma

Thanks. Curious to know how many beds the Knox Boxes held vs the total beds after all that sectors development is done. Also anyone know what will become of the current Hillel location?

Staggering how many more students will be living on campus or adjacent to campus compared to 10 years ago.

Yeah. We have a few who rent out houses in our neighborhood still. So, there is still demand for student housing.

[Catcprtc]

Originally Posted by hikerMD

Actually five!

1. Aspen Heights
2. The Hub
3. Union on Knox
4. The Standard
5. The Aster

And if the City hall had not been so efficient getting it done, it would have been six simultaneous projects in a quarter mile radius!

With those projects, South campus will maximize its density very nicely. I wonder how the market for off-campus student housing will evolve. Despite the very high prices all the new apartments have, they consistently seem to be able to maintain very low vacancy rates . But in the next three years 4,000 more beds are coming online, so they may have a harder time filling them up. With some luck, that will moderate their prices, which would also put a ceiling on the less nice apartments downstream.

The Aster is in a different position though, since it caters non-students. The only rivals close to campus are The Domain and The Alloy, and both have 0% vacancy I believe. If they manage to fill The Aster, that will be a good step towards a critical mass of year-round residents in College Park, which can lead to further improvements.

I can think of a 6th: the Baltimore Avenue apartment project south of Bently's is still very much active. Look for planning board action before mid 2022.

[DoughLow805]

Originally Posted by hikerMD

The Aster is in a different position though, since it caters non-students. The only rivals close to campus are The Domain and The Alloy, and both have 0% vacancy I believe. If they manage to fill The Aster, that will be a good step towards a critical mass of year-round residents in College Park, which can lead to further improvements.

Rivals close to campus for non-students probably includes Pilot House at Riverdale Park Station.

[hikerMD]

Originally Posted by RickyRoma

Thanks. Curious to know how many beds the Knox Boxes held vs the total beds after all that sectors development is done.

Good question. The new developments have 434 (Aspen Heights) and 464 (The Hub) beds, so together with the 1,493 in Terrapin Row, that's a total of 2,391 beds replacing however many the Knox boxes had.

If you also add the 843 beds at Landmark, the 951 at The Standard, and 788 the at the Union on Knox, you have 4,973 new beds in a period of 10 years, just South of campus

Originally Posted by RickyRoma

Also anyone know what will become of the current Hillel location?

This document from Sep 10, 2020 says

When originally proposed, and approved by the Board in April, the project included a 0.91-acre parcel that is currently owned and operated by Maryland Hillel (the “Hillel Property”). UMCP and Hillel are parties to an Exchange Agreement dated November 7, 2016, under which UMCP was to take title to the Hillel Property. The Board of Regents approved this Exchange Agreement on April 15, 2016. In turn, UMCP intended to convey to Hillel a UMCP-owned parcel in the Old Town neighborhood of College Park. Hillel plans to build a new, larger Hillel center on this property. Although Hillel obtained development approvals for its new center, it did not, and has not yet, met fundraising goals required to start construction. UMCP, a strong supporter of the development of the new Hillel center, has agreed to defer the outside closing date of the Hillel property exchange until July 2022.

As a result, UMCP and GDC have agreed to remove the Hillel Property from the initial phase of their transaction.

So it looks like initially it was going to be part of the Western Gateway, but since they didn't meet their fundraising goals in time, they were put aside. Now that the Hillel is making progress with their fundraising, I imagine they'll go ahead with the land swap, because if the University wants to ever get the Western Gateway going with the minimum amount of forest cleared, they'll need that lot.

[RickyRoma]

Thanks. I’m going to guess 25 boxes with 4-6 apartments each (mine had 4), so figure 20 beds per box. So maybe 500 total - now close to 5,000. That is hard to believe.

[hikerMD]

Originally Posted by Catcprtc

I can think of a 6th: the Baltimore Avenue apartment project south of Bently's is still very much active. Look for planning board action before mid 2022.

Oooh, very interesting. I didn't know the Terrapin House project was marching forward. They still need a zoning change, right? I had also read that the unofficial agreement was to have tall buildings West of Baltimore, and keep it low East, but of course with the Landmark and the new City hall, a 5-story building would fit right in. And I think for the best. Retail-wise wouldn't be a bit improvement, since Northwest Chinese's building is fairly new (2004-ish) and decent looking, but it would increase density and foot traffic to the area.


Of course, it is not going to happen, but a real game changer would be to add more commercial streets to College Park East of Baltimore. I think the new commercial streets in The Aster and Union on Knox will really help make downtown less linear, but it would be good to have more things East, perhaps geared toward adults.







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