INDIANAPOLIS, ID - The Annex Group, a leading student and affordable housing developer, and Servitas, LLC, a privately-owned real estate development firm specializing in student housing, announce today the closing of a public-private partnership (“P3”) student housing development at the University of Louisiana Monroe (“ULM”) in Monroe, La.
The $26 million, 127-unit (372 bed), on-campus housing development will be located at 101 Peyton Drive. The project will provide on-campus affordable student housing for the students at ULM and offer a meaningful opportunity to enhance the campus experience and promote academic success. The facility is being developed independent of funding from the university or the state of Louisiana.
“Our partnership with Provident Resources Group, a national non-profit foundation, and ULM lets us address the housing need on the campus, specifically adding in-demand beds targeted at upperclassmen and medical students – at affordable rates,” said Angel Rivera, Vice President of Real Estate Development for Servitas. “This is the first new on-campus housing at ULM in over a decade. On-campus apartments have a waitlist and there is not capacity to accommodate the incoming medical students and upperclassmen who are currently living off-campus. We are accomplishing this without any taxpayer dollars or financial commitments from the university.”
Each unit will include a full kitchen, with a refrigerator, range, dishwasher, and washer and dryer. The development will offer sought-after amenities, including a retail food establishment, fitness facility, on-site parking, and study areas for students. The new development will break ground in July 2019 and is set to be delivered in August of 2020.
The fully furnished units will rent individually by the bed for students, with 26 one-bedroom, 29 two-bedroom units and 72 four-bedroom units available for the Fall 2020 semester. Rents will be competitive with the existing ULM on-campus housing.
“We are thrilled to begin development on this project and appreciate the opportunity to partner with Servitas to break into the P3 development model,” said Tom Tomaszewski, Chief Operating Officer and President of Annex Construction. “Our intention is to continue providing purpose-built multifamily housing both on and off-campus in emerging markets across the U.S.”
The project was financed through a tax-exempt bond issue, underwritten by Raymond James, with participating support from Provident Resources Group, who will own the building. The Annex Group® and Servitas worked in collaboration with the Florida office of Houston-based architect, PGAL, to design the proposed structure.
According to a recent report from the EY-Parthenon Education practice, “P3s can provide greater flexibility and efficiency when building, financing and managing infrastructure and facilities. They can help to offset risk, promote designs of new facilities that fit into the existing structures, and confirm that the new facilities are both of high quality and attractive to prospective students.” With an approximate 50% year-over-year increase in the value of P3 transactions, development volume is expected to reach more than $5B by 2024.
The Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) is currently constructing a medical school at ULM, which will open in Fall 2020. The new residence facility is expected to be ready in time to provide on-campus housing for the first class of medical students.