PlaceBV Student Housing Fund  Announces Investments Valued at $38M

By Anuradha Kher, Online  News EditorAtlanta–The Place/BV Student Housing Fund LLC recently  invested $38 million in First Street Place and Maverick Place (pictured), two student  housing properties located in Greenville, N.C. and Arlington, Texas, respectively. When complete, First Street  Place will serve the students of East Carolina University (ECU) and Maverick  Place will serve the students of University of Texas at Arlington (UT  Arlington). Both communities will open in the summer of 2009. BVP Managers  LLC, a joint venture between Atlanta-based Place Properties LP and  Chicago-based Blue Vista Capital Management LLC, will serve as the manager of  the fund. The 193-unit First Street Place, located four blocks  from ECU’s main campus, will provide students with a mix of one-, two-and  three-bedroom apartments. First Street Place is in the heart of Greenville’s  downtown and near its popular retail stores, restaurants and public parks. The  community will feature 288 beds. Amenities include a fitness center, tanning  bed, computer lab and beach-entry swimming pool. Maverick Place  will offer one-, two-, and four-bedroom apartments, each with private  bathrooms. The 117-unit project is being built to complement the university’s  rapidly climbing enrollment.   Amenities include a clubhouse with  fitness center, resort-style swimming pool, tanning bed, and cyber café.   “When we looked at the Greenville market, we realized that there  are good number of four- bedroom/four-bath units but there is an undersupply of one-, two- and three-bedroom  units,” Brent Little, national development partner with Place Properties,  tells MHN. “With this project, we are targeting the upper-classmen and  graduate students. Typically, student housing is  targeted toward undergraduate students.”As far as Arlington goes,  Little says, “This is the new home of the Dallas cowboys and the city of  Arlington is undergoing a lot of development and coordination with that. This  project is a couple of miles from the stadium. Also, it has been 10 years  since a new off-campus student housing project opened.” Pre  leasing for both the projects starts at the end of  this year and students will move in for the fall session next  year.