Roger Development Taps Fullerton Diaz to Design Housing for University of Florida

By Erika Schnitzer, Associate EditorGainesville, Fla.—Coral Gables-based Fullerton Diaz Architects has been tapped by Roger Development Group Inc. to design One College Park, a mixed-use project containing three buildings conveniently located to the University of Florida, Gainesville campus.  The $55 million project, which sits on 1.77 acres, will include a 56-unit loft apartment building, a 170-suite hotel, 15,000 square feet of retail, and a 580-space subterranean parking garage.    “It’s a perfect location for [the area’s] revival, and a very convenient location to the [Ben Hill Griffin] Stadium and campus in general and to all the commercial areas that surround the campus on the north side,” John Fullerton, founding partner of Fullerton Diaz Architects, tells MHN, adding that the retail space is expected to “animate the street” and “get people walking” in the once-blighted area.The site is currently a church-owned parking lot, but Roger Development Group has obtained a 99-year ground lease for the land. The team expects to break ground in the first quarter of 2010, with completion slated for the fall of 2011.“This neighborhood is a very old, established neighborhood,” notes Oscar Roger, president and CEO of Roger Development Group Inc. “There’s no land available to build, except this property, which, as a parking lot for the church, was underutilized.”The apartments, which are being designed as duplexes, will feature five or six bedrooms, each with their own bathrooms and separate entrances on both levels. The project’s main amenity, says Fullerton, “is that it’s so close and convenient to the university that people won’t have to use their cars.”