CA Ventures Unveils New Student Housing Communities

by Jeffrey Steele

Chicago—CA Ventures’ student housing investment and development division CA Student Living has completed eight student housing communities comprising almost 4,000 beds. The new properties are valued at $460 million. Located in California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, they are  collectively 95 percent occupied.

CA Student Living’s portfolio now totals $1.5 billion, and it accounts for almost 10 percent of the 47,700 beds at student housing communities nationwide that are scheduled to be unveiled in 2016. It also places near the top of the industry in U.S. development activity, based on the approximately 12,500 beds it plans to market in the space of the three years between 2015 and 2017, inclusive.

The new CA Student Living communities offer fully furnished apartments featuring luxury finishes, in-unit laundry and in most units a 1:1 bed-to-bath ratio. Tech-friendly features like USB outlets, smart TVs, ultra-high-speed Internet, wireless surround sound and Bluetooth shower heads in bathrooms grace select apartments. Students residing in the CA Student Living apartments are also able to avail themselves of an array of common-area amenities, and they can take advantage of CA Student Living programming geared to bettering study habits, spurring wise personal finance decisions and helping cement attainment of career objectives.

“While student housing developments often mirror market-rate apartment communities in terms of both finishes and amenities, they present a unique set of challenges due in large part to the hard deadline they face,” CA Ventures COO JJ Smith told MHN. “Unlike a traditional rental community, student housing projects must open before classes start or risk losing an entire year of occupancy and revenue.

“Delivering more than 4,000 student housing beds on time is no small feat and takes a tremendous team effort. As with any commercial construction project, challenges arise along the way. At HERE Kansas, for example, the vendor selected to provide the automated valet parking system filed for bankruptcy after our garage was already built, forcing us to come up with alternative plans.”

The eight student housing communities include the following:

• The Foundation, 3075 Redding Ave., a 725-bed community at California State University, Sacramento, in Sacramento, Calif.
• Uncommon Tampa, 14202 N. 42 St., a 512-bed community at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
• Uncommon Athens, 165 E. Dougherty St., a 210-bed community at the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga.
• HERE Kansas, 1111 Indiana St., a 624-bed community at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kan.
• Evolve Allendale, 4967 Pierce St.., a 600-bed community at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich.
• Uncommon Charlottesville, 1000 W. Main St., a 357-bed community at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va.

• NXNW, 800 Viking Circle, a 648-bed community at West Washington University in Bellingham, Wash.
• Uncommon Madison, 110 N. Bedford St., a 410-bed community at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Madison, Wis.

For more than 10 years, CA Ventures has delivered high-end, exceptionally well-amenitized alternatives to old-fashioned off-campus dwellings in college towns nationwide, Smith said.

“These 2016 deliveries continue our legacy of creating market-defining residential and mixed-use developments that are unparalleled in their respective markets and conducive to the lifestyle of today’s student population.”