It wasn't so long ago that we first told you about plans to demolish engineering labs at 34th & Lancaster and replace them with a large mixed-use student housing building, ostensibly for Drexel kids. About a year ago, those efforts got underway and when we checked back here in January the building process was just getting underway. We passed by last week, and were really impressed by the progress that's taken place at the site in as this year has rolled along. We didn't even need to pass by actually, we could see the building from blocks away.
The project, now called the Summit at University City is being built by American Campus, the same company that recently built the Chestnut Square development nearby. These guys have done almost a hundred student housing projects around the country, and have pretty much perfected the art. This might explain, in part, the rapid pace of construction.
To remind you, the twenty-four story building contains 1,300 beds over a variety of floor plans, and 20,000 sqft of retail space divided into as many as eleven different spaces. It's perhaps a little surprising that some of these units include shared bedrooms; in a new building like this we would have expected individual bedrooms with shared kitchens and living rooms. With prices starting at $874 per month per person for a two-bedroom unit for four people we start wondering about value but again this company has done this all over the place and clearly knows exactly what they're doing.
Our favorite floorplan (and you can see all of them here) is the huge one-bedroom unit going for $1,639/mo. We feel like that kid is either going to be extremely popular or won't have any friends at all. But maybe we're just bitter, with memories of college apartments that probably should have been condemned and definitely didn't have amenities like granite countertops, a fitness center, and a washer/dryer that didn't require a fistful of quarters.
This building is expected to be ready for occupancy in the fall of 2015. Last week they had an open house event and were taking applications for next year. The event included "free food and swag." Anyone else feeling like they were born in the wrong decade on this Monday morning?