Landmark JV Kicks Off Florida Project
The 464-bed community will serve students at the University of Florida.
The Metropolitan at Gainesville. Image courtesy of Landmark Properties
Landmark Properties has partnered with W5 Group for the third time to deliver The Metropolitan at Gainesville, a 464-bed student housing community catering to students at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla. Construction is set to begin this fall with completion slated before the start of the 2023 fall semester.
The community will be located within walking distance of the UF campus and will offer 169 units with private bathrooms, washers and dryers and high-speed internet. Planned amenities include a swimming pool, gym and study lounge. Residents will have access to a student shuttle and roughly 400 parking spaces.
Active in Florida, beyond
Although student housing proved overall resilient to pandemic-generated insecurity, it is assets around top-tier universities that recorded the highest preleasing activity before the start of the 2021-22 school year.
With Landmark student communities in Gainesville being occupied almost to full capacity this year, the company was confident in further investing in the market, Landmark CEO & President Wes Rogers said in prepared remarks, adding that UF’s ranking among top U.S. universities was also a factor.
The UF market registered a 10.3 percent increase in preleasing rates year-over-year through August, with 93.6 percent of existing beds booked ahead of the 2021 fall semester, data from a recent Yardi Matrix webinar indicates.
Landmark owns two student communities in Gainesville, totaling 1,698 beds, and is currently working on the second phase of The Standard, a project which will add another 498 bedrooms to the company’s portfolio next year.
The company has had a particularly active 2021. In September, Landmark partnered with W5 Group for the second time to start work on The Retreat East, a 602-bedroom student community serving students at the University of Central Florida. In August, the developer entered a joint venture with Blackstone to acquire 5,416 beds across the U.S. paying $784 million for eight communities.
