Suffolk University is hoping to purchase 10 West St. in Boston for dormitory space. The 7-story building is located in the city’s downtown Ladder District.
Two months after the city withdrew its support for a Suffolk University dormitory on Boston’s Beacon Hill, the school intends to purchase a building downtown.
“We are in negotiations,” confirmed John Nucci, Suffolk’s vice president for government and community relations. “We don’t have a deal yet but we’re making progress.”
Suffolk officials hope to purchase a 7-story building at 10 West St., located in the city’s Ladder District at the corner of Washington Street, a block from the Ritz-Carlton towers. The building, assessed at $4.5 million, has been undergoing conversion to 73 luxury condominiums. If the sale proceeds, the school plans to house nearly 300 students at the location.
In January, Mayor Thomas M. Menino backed Beacon Hill residents in their fight to prevent Suffolk from building a 22-story dormitory in their neighborhood. The university had planned to raze the former Metropolitan District Commission headquarters at 20 Somerset St. and build 550 dorms, but the plan received strong opposition from neighbors who said a nearby residence hall is already the source of numerous complaints.
Nucci said the university expects to convert the building to dorm rooms for as many as 280 students. Buying the building is an opportunity for the school to meet its housing requirements for the school’s 4,600 undergraduates, he said.
Still, Nucci said the addition of the rooms would not solve the university’s housing problem. He noted that 18 percent or 828 of the school’s undergraduates occupy dorm space around the school. But the university expects to grow to 5,000 students over the next few years and Suffolk officials hope to have beds for 50 percent or 2,500 of its students.
“We are still looking around, trying to identify other suitable locations for our students,” he said.
Nucci said he believes that creation of dorms in the Ladder District – sometimes called “Midtown” – near Downtown Crossing will help transform the emerging neighborhood into a place where people want to live. The area is located between Tremont and Washington streets.
“This is a win for everybody,” said Nucci. “Here’s an opportunity for us to meet our housing requirements but will also help revitalize another area of downtown. If we are successful, there will be 270 fewer students looking to get leases this fall in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.”
Tracy Campion, the broker handling condo sales at 10 West St., said none of the units had sold but some presale agreements had been signed. “Suffolk really wanted it and they’re probably giving the owners a good price,” said Campion, broker-owner of Campion & Assoc. “It would have been a successful project. The units are beautiful.”
The building’s Web site described the properties as offering studio and one-bedroom units ranging is size from 455 square feet to 1,115 square feet, some with sleeping lofts and rooftop decks. Prices were not listed.
‘A Very Hard Sell’
Still, Michael Albano, president of Metropolitan Boston Real Estate, said the sale to Suffolk is another sign that the luxury end of Boston’s condo market continues to suffer. In a down market, the first areas to suffer are so-called emerging neighborhoods such as the Ladder District, he said.
“It’s a very hard sell to get wealthy people to spend for big bucks for 10 West St., an address that is within a block of the Boston Common but lacks views of it,” he said. “In an up market, a project like that is ahead of the curve, but in a down market it’s the first one to take a hit. The owner may be cutting their losses rather than getting stuck with units they can’t sell. It’s a smart move, but the owner will probably take a hit on the selling price.”
For the first two months of 2007, condominium sales in Boston’s downtown neighborhoods fell to 254, down from 285 for the same period last year – a 10.9 percent drop, according to the latest data from The Warren Group, parent company of Banker & Tradesman.
Leigh L. Freudenheim, a Meredith & Grew broker representing the landlord, Gold Assoc. in Brookline, declined to comment.
A source familiar with the negotiations between the university and the landlord said, “This is a great opportunity for Suffolk. The location is superior and it’s a trophy building in Downtown Crossing. A purchase-and-sale agreement could be signed in two weeks.”
State Rep. Martha Walz, whose district includes most of Beacon Hill, applauded Suffolk’s decision to seek dormitory space outside of Beacon Hill. She said the school is following the recommendation of the Community Task Force, a panel established to assist the school in finding suitable locations for dorms.
“I’m delighted that Suffolk is exploring the Ladder District and taking advantage of opportunities as they come up for more dorm space,” said Walz. “Suffolk is doing exactly what the task force asked them to do. The idea is not to fill the Ladder District, an emerging residential community, with all dorms, but trying to find the right mix.”
Suffolk, which already has a pair of new buildings on nearby Tremont Street, is not the only school that has moved its operations to the downtown. Emerson College has sold its campus in Boston’s Back Bay and moved to the Theater District. In doing so, it has helped revitalize a run-down section of the city.
Like many city colleges and universities, Suffolk has faced a delicate situation as it tries to increase the number of its dorm rooms. While Somerset Street is not a residential area of Beacon Hill, neighbors said they are leery of undergraduates in a neighborhood that is already beset by unruly student behavior.
Still, the city’s colleges and universities are faced with a myriad of problems as they try to add student housing. While community groups and city officials lobby schools to provide more housing to its students on campus, the institutions are faced with opposition from neighbors who object to the presence of undergraduates.
