Blog - Shooting unlikely to curb appeal for private student housing
BOCA RATON —
University Park is billed as a students-only residence less than a mile from Florida Atlantic University. It offers leases by the bed, matches students with roommates and provides shuttle service to the Boca Raton campus.
Its property was designed with millennials in mind, but with a clear pitch to mom and dad right there on its website.
+UPDATE: One arrest made in fatal shooting of FAU student photo BILL INGRAM
Boca Raton Police officers arrive Dec. 29 at the University Park apartment complex, near FAU’s Boca campus, where 19-year-old Nicholas Max … Read More
Those parents likely went to college in the day when the only true student housing was a bare-bones affair on campus. But that’s no longer the case.
University Park isn’t a dorm. It’s a privately owned, independently operated property — part of at least a decade-old trend growing so strong it has become its own sector in the housing market.
It also was the scene of a shooting Dec. 29 that killed a 19-year-old student staying with his girlfriend.
The shooting happened on the floor above sophomore Jaime Lowe’s apartment. She lived in a dormitory on campus last year, but in fall, Jaime wanted something more, “a nice apartment.” University Park, a gated, students-only complex at 135 NW 20th St. just east of FAU, fit the bill.
It was new, opening in April. It offered a pool, study space, kitchen and furnished bedrooms and living rooms.
Her dad crunched the numbers, Jaime said, and it was a bit cheaper.
The shooting has not soured her, or her parents, on her new home. And the thirst for the kind of student accommodations University Park provides promises to grow, even as FAU’s enrollment expands and demand for housing with it.
From barracks
to suite living
Before World War II, housing on university campuses across the country was a second-thought, typically reserved for young women to address security.
But the GI bill spurred a rush to higher ed and a need to house throngs of young men.
Universities, not schooled in the business of residential construction, tended to go barracks-style. Government rules regarding construction lent to their Spartan feel — a bed connected to a wall was counted as part of the cost of construction, not furniture, say experts in the industry.
Eventually, those old-school accommodations were replaced with suite-style living. But while students got more elbow room, universities began to feel the pinch with growing enrollments and tighter budgets. The combination caused public universities to eye private alternatives.
“It’s actually been going on for quite a while,” said Randy Shearin, editor of Student Housing Business, a publication dedicated to the topic. “There are companies that specialize in this because it’s very different than traditional multi-family. You’re leasing by the bed. It’s tied to the academic calendar.”
They’ve evolved in many forms.
Several universities, such as University of California-Irvine, Arizona State and the University of Kentucky, have contracted with private companies to build and manage dorms on campus. In Kentucky, that meant the university’s private partner put up the money and runs the dorms on a long-term lease.
FAU hasn’t felt that pinch on campus lately.
With an overall enrollment just over 30,000 and a freshmen enrollment that topped 3,500 for the first time in fall, the university fell about 300 short of filling its 4,176 beds in eight residence halls in Boca Raton.
Freshmen living beyond 30 miles of campus are required to bunk in those dorms. But that leaves plenty of students who yearn for off-campus living.
Student’s search
turns into career
Marshall Sklar was one of those students back in 2000. After spending a year in the newly minted Indian River Towers, he began a challenging search for an alternative, and hit the wall many students do.
“We were students who had no credit or very little credit, no jobs because we were full-time students and though we had parents to support us, no one wanted to rent to us,” Sklar said.
He and two friends eventually found a “tiny apartment building” near FAU. But in the search, Sklar found a business model connecting students with renters that has served him better than the journalism degree he pursued. Sklar estimates his Florida’s Best Realty Services helps 600 students a year find housing.
The market has changed since Sklar and his roommates paid $250 a month each to live in that cramped space.
Prices have gone up, both on campus and off.
FAU’s rooms are going for $3,050 to $5,680 a semester — the cheapest requiring students to share bedrooms and bathrooms, and cook in group kitchens. On the other hand, rooms at University Park, range from $980 to $1,429 a month or about $4,900 to $7,145 for the semsester August through December — again the more privacy you give up, the less you have to pay.
Splashes of orange,
green and blue
Across the country, universities have created official ties to privately managed, student-only apartments even off campus.
University Park is not one of those properties.
In fact, Boca Raton city records indicate FAU officials opposed the development built in what was a neighboring industrial area on the site of a closed tile factory. City staff also initially opposed the plans, but the argument that it would be better to concentrate students in housing designed to accommodate them won out.
University Park was the third student housing venture headed by developers Alex Rosemurgy and Rick Giles of Deerfield Beach. According to local news accounts and property records, the pair already had bought and converted two nearby rental properties into what students know as University View and University Square.
The 11-acre University Park, with eight four-story buildings, 159 units and 598 beds, however, was built from the ground up for students — whether they attended FAU or nearby Lynn University or Palm Beach State College.
Splashes of radiant orange, blue and green in the buildings, in the fountains and on the furniture highlight modern spaces. The place boasts an outdoor pool and an indoor gym with vaulted ceilings and graffiti-style art saluting the Owls, the Fighting Knights and the Panthers. There’s a common space with pool table and multiple large-screen TVs.
Its website promises, “Never Lose Cell Reception!” thanks to a cellphone tower on the property.
It’s nearly full, said the property’s spokeswoman, Sarah Flynn.
Big developer sees
need for more
The prospect of housing local students has attracted at least one national developer, as well. The company, which has built 20,000 beds, has set its sights on vacant land at 2600 NW 5th Ave., said attorney Charles Siemon, who represents the developer.
“It’s a prudent way to go, particularly when a university is not committed to providing student housing for a significant portion of university housing,” Siemon said. “I have an apartment in Mizner Park and we have students. They’re well-mannered, but they’re up at all hours that most people are not. So there’s some conflict.”
Among the first concerns Siemon has had to confront is security.
In October, he wrote Boca’s mayor and council to discuss an uptick in police reports at University Park. Though Siemon doesn’t represent that property, he said he wanted to head off concerns that student housing is a magnet for police calls.
From April to September, University Park racked up 49 incidents, according to Siemon’ tally — a rate of .08 per bed. But the numbers dropped in October, and he expected them to continue to fall. He said his clients see rates closer to .03.
“The incidence per beds doesn’t change just because it’s student residential housing,” Siemon said.
The residence halls on FAU’s campus have several layers of security, Housing Director Larry Faerman said. Students need key cards to get into buildings, elevators or stairs, and keys both to their suites and their individual room.
The front lobby desks in each residence hall is staffed by trained students. There are cameras. Community service officers, who do rounds from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m., carry radios to connect with campus police.
Jaime, a sophomore, had just returned from holiday when the ambiance she craved at University Park was at least briefly shattered. She heard a girl screaming and a security guard rushed through the halls shouting someone had been shot.
Police later reported five men stormed an apartment on the floor above hers and shot a young man staying with his girlfriend. They say the victim, 19-year-old Nicholas Acosta, had sold marijuana and the girlfriend told police a large bag of pot was stolen.
Security always has been present, Jaime said. “I always see two or three of them around.”
And the complex is also gated, secured with a keypad. Boca Raton police reported the victim texted the code to the men who minutes later stormed the apartment and killed him.
Now a guard is posted there as well, a precaution police suggested, University Park’s spokeswoman Flynn said.
“The first couple days after, everyone was a little scared to go out of their rooms,” Jaime said this week.
But she is comforted by what she’s heard so far. “It wasn’t a random shooting.”
Staff researcher Melanie Mena contributed to this story.
MORE EDUCATION ONLINE: Check out education reporter Sonja Isger’s frequent updates on Palm Beach County schools at her Extra Credit blog: extracredit.blog.palmbeachpost.com/
Securing off-campus living
One developer’s security plan for off-campus, student housing near Florida Atlantic University:
Security cameras.
No alcohol in common areas, such as the pool or hallways.
Front desk check-in for visitors.
Two-day limit on a visitor’s stay.
A 24-hour security manager, with authority to break up parties.
Securing off-campus living
One developer’s security plan for off-campus, student housing near Florida Atlantic University:
Security cameras.
No alcohol in common areas, such as the pool or hallways.
Front desk check-in for visitors.
Two-day limit on a visitor’s stay.
A 24-hour security manager, with authority to break up parties.