Subtext Plans 1st Arkansas Student Housing Development
The project is being built for students attending a Power 5 University.
Student housing development specialist Subtext has revealed development plans for VERVE Fayetteville, an 845-ben student housing development located in the Arkansas city of the same name. This will be the developer’s first project in the state, and will be adjacent to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. The project will be developed with equity partner Kayne Anderson Real Estate and is slated to deliver in August 2027, in time for the 2027-28 academic year.
VERVE Fayetteville, located at 707 W. Treadwell St., will consist of 272 units, with one- to four-bedroom layouts. Amenities include open and private study spaces, a café, sports simulator, fire pits, as well as a resort-style pool and hot tub. Its fitness and wellness center features cardio, weights, yoga, sauna, and private wellness rooms.
Kennedy Wilson is the project’s lender, with Brinkmann Constructors is serving as general contractor. Modus Studio will be the architect and Vida Design will plan the interiors. Also involved in the development are AJC Design Group and Viewtech, which will respectively handle landscaping and structural engineering. John Rowland and Steve Lane of Colliers | Arkansas brokered the sale of the VERVE Fayetteville development site to Subtext.
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The University of Arkansas, flagship of the state university system, had an enrollment of 31,673 students (graduate and undergraduate) in the spring of 2025, up from 29,017 in the spring of 2023.
Subtext is expanding aggressively. The company, along with equity partner Larson Capital Management, unveiled plans in March for two student housing developments in College Station, Texas, serving the students of Texas A&M University. The developments will be one each of Subtext’s brands, EVER and VERVE College Station, totaling 1,648 beds.
In January, the developer broke ground on LOCAL on Delmar, a 259-unit multifamily property near Washington University in St. Louis. The month before that announcement, the developer announced plans to enter the Virginia for the first time with VERVE Charlottesville, a 1,332-bed student housing project intended to serve the University of Virginia.
Student housing’s cloudy fundamentals
Among the top 32 Power 5 schools, the University of Arkansas came in 12th in a ranking by the amount of preleasing for its off-campus housing options as of May 2025, according to Yardi Matrix data. Arkansas came in at 82.9 percent preleased, down 5.5 percentage points from the same month in 2024.
Currently, the University of Arkansas has 9,765 beds in its off-campus market, with another 1,230 beds under way, Yardi Matrix reports. The property collects $890 per bed per month, up 1.4 percent year-over-year.
Overall, top university markets remain resilient, supported by stable enrollment and strong preleasing. Fall 2024 enrollment growth for 189 schools in the Yardi 200 averaged 1.8 percent, compared with 1.1 percent in fall 2023.Â
Advertised rental rates were $917 per bed in April 2025, as rent growth slipped to 2 percent year-over-year from an average of 6.4 percent during the last two leasing seasons.
