Radnor Partnership to Build $147M Atlanta Student Housing Project
The developers are targeting the local demand for off-campus housing at affordable price points.
Radnor Property Group, in partnership with Madrone Community Development Foundation, has closed on financing needed for a $147 million, 305-unit, 793-bed student housing development in Atlanta. Construction has begun and the community is slated to be ready by fall of 2028 for students at Spelman and Morehouse colleges.
The sale of approximately $146.8 million in tax-exempt and taxable bonds issued by the Development Authority of Fulton County was completed earlier this month. DAFC had approved more than $144 million in bond financing in February for the student housing development, planned for 850 West End Ave. SW in Atlanta’s West End neighborhood.
DAFC will loan the proceeds of the bonds to Madrone-MS Student Housing LLC, a subsidiary of Madrone Community Development Foundation. West End Avenue P3, LLC, a joint venture entity between Morehouse and Spelman colleges, has entered into a 50-year lease agreement with Madrone as part of the development team for the project.
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The development team includes Radnor Property Group as lead development partner, Clark Construction and CD Moody Construction in a joint venture as construction manager, Moody Nolan as architect and Pape-Dawson as civil engineer.
Raymond James, along with Loop Capital Markets, served as underwriter for the bond financing. Brailsford & Dunlavey was the college’s project advisor. Kutak Rock served as bond counsel and Hilltop Securities was the financial advisor for the colleges.
The students’ new digs
Located along West End Avenue, a key corridor on the edge of both the Morehouse and Spelman campuses, the community will be built across from Morehouse’s B.T. Harvey Stadium. The approximately 358,000-square-foot building will have studio, one-, two- and four-bedroom units. There will be lounges on every floor and a central green space for social events and other gatherings. Additional amenities will include a 24/7 staffed lobby, outdoor recreation space, a fitness room, community lounges, study rooms, bike storage a and dog run.
Rents will be about $1,200 a month per bed, roughly 3 percent below the average rent paid for off-campus apartments.
Both HBCUs have had significant enrollment increases over the past five years, up approximately 25 percent, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. While both colleges are building new on-campus residences, they are replacing aging buildings and won’t add beds, AJC reported. Consequently, they have turned to a public-private partnership to increase affordable, off-campus options.
Recent Radnor P3 projects
Radnor, a Philadelphia-based national real estate company that focuses on public-private partnership projects, is currently revitalizing The University of Akron’s entire on-campus, 2,552-bed portfolio. Financing for the $161 million, 50-year public-private partnership closed in December 2025. The Ohio project is expected to be substantially completed by fall of 2027.
In September 2023, Radnor and Harrison Street formed a public-private partnership with Appalachian State University to build 156 units of employee housing within the Innovation District at the university’s Boone, N.C., campus. The 175,000-square-foot project, completed in 2025, spans five multi-story buildings to provide affordable staff housing.
Radnor and Harrison Street also partnered with Duquesne University in December 2022 to develop a 556-bed student community in Pittsburgh. The 11-story, 216-unit property began leasing in the fall of 2024.
