More than half of the 825 beds in the LightView residential tower under construction at Northeastern University are leased ahead of next fall’s grand opening.
With its aspirational Instagram feed and sun-splashed apartments, a $160 million residential tower at Northeastern University resembles one of Boston’s new luxury high rises competing for urban professionals’ housing budgets.
Northeastern University is partnering with American Campus Communities, an Austin, Texas-based REIT, on the 320,000-square-foot project recently branded as LightView. More than 800 students lined up to tour the leasing center in September, and more than half of the 825 beds in the building at Columbus Avenue and Burke Street have been leased, said Kathy Spiegelman, Northeastern’s chief of campus planning and development. Units range from one to four bedrooms, and rent for $1,334 to $1,695 per student.
American Campus Communities’ model is “pretty amenity-intensive, and we’re trying to keep competitive with the market and where students might otherwise go,” Spiegelman said. “We continue to get inquiries from other local colleges and universities asking if they should do this.”
The LightView tower illustrates the growing role that private developers play in Boston’s student housing market. The pace of investment is expected to accelerate as other schools, including Simmons College, weigh whether to cash in on their rising real estate values, and a British firm ramps up a $1 billion pipeline of private dorm-style developments for students and researchers.
Addressing Off-Campus Housing Concerns
Boston officials have pressured local colleges to step up dorm development, seeking to stem the tide of rowdy undergraduates filling up apartments and competing with families for the city’s disappearing stock of reasonably priced rental housing.
As part of its 2013 master plan, Northeastern agreed to develop 1,000 student beds, including the 825-bed LightView project. Built on a half-acre parking lot on the edge of the urban campus, the tower is ground-leased by ACC for 45 years.
The financial model is a departure from the one used to build Northeastern’s first private residential hall, the 723-bed GrandMarc on St. Botolph Street, which was developed by Lincoln Property Co. and ground-leased to Northeastern. On Columbus Avenue, Northeastern retained ownership. While declining to give specific numbers, Spiegelman said that arrangement avoided creating a significant liability on the school’s balance sheet, giving the school more flexibility to invest in academic programs and services instead of housing.
This is the first New England project for American Campus Communities, which was selected from seven student housing operators and local developers that responded to a request for proposals issued by Northeastern. The company operated 168 properties totaling approximately 103,500 beds as of Sept. 30, including 131 off-campus properties that it owns and more than 30 ground-leased facilities.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh has indicated support for private dorm projects as long as the school maintains a contractual relationship with the developer to provide full-time resident assistant-style employees to address concerns about behavior, Spiegelman said.
Steve Adams
The British Are Coming
That fits the full-time on-site management model pitched by Scape, a London-based real estate developer which this fall announced plans for a billion-dollar pipeline of new construction in Boston as the first phase of its U.S. expansion. Scape last month submitted plans for a 500-unit, 205,500-square-foot residential building at 1252-1268 Boylton St. in the Fenway, and plans to build up to 20,000 beds nationally in the next five years.
Scape declined to comment for this story. In previous announcements, the company indicated that it’s planning up to three additional developments in Boston to satisfy demand for graduate student and researcher housing.
Housing activists in the Fenway also are keeping a close eye on Simmons College’s year-long real estate study, which could reshape its 12-acre campus on the edge of the growing luxury housing and commercial development cluster on Boylston Street.
Real estate industry sources say Simmons is in negotiations with developer Skanska on a plan that would densify the campus and add new private life science lab space, academic facilities and dorms. The school owns five academic buildings at 300 The Fenway and 13 dorms at 54 Pilgrim Road.
Skanska could not be reached for comment. Simmons spokesman Jeremy Solomon said no agreement with the developer has been reached, but the school’s goals for optimizing its real estate in the transforming Fenway have not changed.
“We’re still exploring our capacity and the options for achieving the goals,” Solomon said.
“We’ve been endeavoring to improve our science facilities and modernize our living and learning offerings, but at this time we have no signed deal with a developer.”
