When the Zaragon Place high-rise on East University opened last fall, its rents set new records for campus housing: two-bedroom apartments listed for $2,500 a month, six-bedrooms for $6,000. Yet this coming fall tenants will pay even more for the convenience of living two minutes from the Diag: those units are now advertised at $2,700 and $6,600, respectively.
Between Zaragon, the Courtyards on Plymouth, and 4 Eleven Lofts at Division and Washington, developers added nearly 1,500 beds targeted at students last year. Along with great locations, these upscale havens offer amenities that range from flat-screen TVs and microwaves to concierge services and on-site parking spaces. 4 Eleven Lofts even has a doorman.
A one-bedroom apartment at 4 Eleven rents for $1,450 a month–and general manager Stacy Gregorio says there was a run on them when the building opened last fall. Bob Hetherington, spokesman for Courtyards manager Allen & O’Hara, says their one-bedrooms filled so fast they rented some two-bedroom apartments to individuals.
Not surprisingly, one-bedrooms will see the biggest rent increase at the Courtyards, from $993 last fall to $1,250 for the next school year. Two-bedrooms are increasing from $799 per person to $850, and four-bedrooms from $630 to $699.
Along with location and amenities, the new complexes are selling privacy: many apartments have as many bathrooms as they have bedrooms. “This ‘millennial’ generation is definitely used to having their own space and having their own bathroom,” says Hetherington. “There are many students out there who have not had to share a bedroom [in their lives].”
The U-M dorms can’t match that privacy, even after their ongoing renovations–but it’s impossible to beat their locations. Peter Logan, communications director for the U-M housing department, says university housing has been 100 percent leased for the past two years, and he expects that to continue this fall. The long-awaited, 450-bed North Quad will finally open in September, but the 560-bed Couzens Hall will be vacated this spring for a yearlong renovation, so the U’s bed count will actually fall slightly from this year’s 12,368–though Logan notes that if the U enrolls another big freshman class, it can always add beds in lounge areas and other locations.
Things aren’t so rosy in the student ghetto. A few years ago, landlord Zaki Alawi was hoping that with rising U-M enrollment, he’d be able to significantly increase rents at his fifty-one campus houses after eight years of stagnation. It didn’t happen. With all the construction, he says, “it’s still a renter’s market.”
There are no signs of life at three other large apartment complexes approved by the city. One partner in 601 Forest (nee University Village) sued another last year. The puzzling 42 North–“student” apartments miles from campus–may reappear as a smaller project aimed at adults, according to a post on the “South Maple” Google group. And Chicago-based Joseph Freed & Associates has done no work on its roughly 100-unit Glen-Ann project since clearing the site. Gregorio at 4 Eleven Lofts–also a Freed property–says she has “no idea” when construction might start.
