$18M apartment project in works for Evans

EVANS – A North Carolina-based development company that specializes in student-oriented apartments wants to build a 192-unit complex in Evans, approximately one mile south of the University of Northern Colorado campus.

Campus Crest Development has proposed to build the $18 million project, which would house 504 residents, on vacant ground at the southeast corner of 11th Avenue and 32nd Street. The project recently won support from the Evans Planning Commission, and will be reviewed by the Evans City Council on June 26.

As planned, the apartments would be called The Grove – the same name Campus Crest has applied to similar projects in North Carolina, Georgia and New Mexico. The company’s most recent project is a 192-unit complex set to open next month in Las Cruces, N.M., near the New Mexico State University campus.

Campus Crest, headquartered in Greensboro, N.C., picked the Evans site as part of its strategy targeting college towns that slip “under the radar” of competing developers.

“Fort Collins would be a tough school for us – the competition is so brutal there,´ said Thomas Odai, the western regional representative for Campus Crest. Odai, based in Santa Fe, N.M., said Boulder poses the same challenges.

Campus Crest looks instead to build near schools with enrollments between 8,000 and 12,000, where there are a significant percentage of single students living off campus.

“We like UNC,” Odai said. “We like what’s going on at the school. It’s joining the Big Sky Conference this year. They are making some improvements on campus, but it’s limited in land, so they can really expand. There are a litany of factors.”

Designs for The Grove call for 10 apartment buildings – four with 12 units and six with 24 units – a clubhouse and pool. Units will be furnished and include kitchen and laundry appliances, cable television and high-speed Internet access. Each bedroom will have its own bathroom. The Grove also organizes social programs for its tenants.

Rents for the two-bedroom and three-bedroom suites will be charged on an individual basis. Fees at The Grove will range from $420 to $500 per month per bedroom.

“Our niche is to try to be the highest-end provider in the market,” Odai said. “We call it ‘fully loaded living.'”

Odai said The Grove’s primary competition would be the Arlington Park Apartments, which houses about 400 students at 2315 Ninth Ave. Arlington Park, which features two-bedroom units, charges approximately $450 per person.

Plans for The Grove seem ill-timed to Tobias Guzman, director of housing and residence life at the University of Northern Colorado.

“It’s kind of surprising they would venture out to do this,” Guzman said. “I’m not sure if they did a study. The vacancy rate is resting about 10 percent … that has affected us on campus in terms of second-, third- and fourth-year students living with us.”

Freshman are required to live on campus at UNC, but all other students are free to live off campus.

UNC has experienced a decline over the past four years in the number of non-freshmen who are living on campus. “We get about 1,200 contracts signed in February, but when we open in August, we actually see a yield of only about 700,” Guzman said.

But Campus Crest is not concerned about the overall vacancy rate in the area, Odai said

“We only look at what we feel is our competition,” he explained. Since Arlington Park is close to 100 percent occupancy, Campus Crest feels the market is right for a similar form of rental units.

In addition to the housing, plans for The Grove include a lot for a 15,000-square-foot retail building. Campus Crest would sell the lot to an interested developer, Odai said.

“It makes sense with 500 residents next door that there would be some retail value,” he said.

on Facebook on LinkedIn