student housing – C-VILLE Weekly

The student housing scramble: Two roommates find a good fit off-Grounds

By Shrey Dua

In Charlottesville, one of the largest populations of apartment dwellers can be found in the roughly mile-wide radius immediately surrounding the University of Virginia: students.

Every year, waves of UVA students abandon Grounds in favor of their own apartments, a process that quickly spirals into a mad dash to find the best, most-affordable living space as close to Grounds as possible. That means the search for housing often starts as early as September.

Third-year students David Gent and Drew Dudzig, who met in high school and became roommates in their second year at UVA, enjoyed some of the benefits of on-Grounds housing their first and second years, but decided to move off-Grounds for their third year.

“We weren’t trying to live on-Grounds another year, just given what you get for how much you pay,” says Gent.

The two found a two-bedroom, one-bath apartment at College Court, a small, ’70s-era complex on 13th Street, after a nerve-racking house-hunting process. “It was actually incredibly stressful,” says Gent. “I went to Australia for a summer internship, and during that time the plans we had made fell through, so Drew and I were basically homeless around mid-June.”

Gent found an apartment while he was in Australia and had his mom contact the owner to work out the details. “It was a pretty crazy situation, but everything worked out in the end,” he says.

Dudzig and Gent’s story is fairly common among university students. The race to find housing often leaves many in a last-second panic just to find a place to live in Charlottesville, let alone one with the amenities students look for in an apartment, especially a room of one’s own.

“Honestly, I was so used to sharing a room at Lambeth last year, and the dorms my first year, as well as with my brother when I was younger, the fact that I got my own room this year alone made it pretty great,” says Gent.

“The apartment has its fair share of drawbacks, things like being in the basement, the occasional bug, keeping the small bathroom and kitchen clean, making sure the drain isn’t clogged, normal stuff like that we have to worry about,” Gent says. “But we’re both fairly clean so it’s really not much of a problem.”

Gent and Dudzig both think their apartment is a much better situation than living at Lambeth, where they were last year. Lambeth Field Apartments and GrandMarc on the Corner are both popular destinations for many second-year students, with fully furnished units and utilities included. But the downsides are pricey rents and often having to share a room. Gent and Dudzig paid around $800 a month each for a shared two-person bedroom. Now, “we each have our own room, and we’re paying less, around $750-775 a month, per person.” says Dudzig. “I also really like the location. Some people think walking to Grounds from the Corner can be a pain, but honestly it’s not very far at all from most of my classes. I probably even prefer the location to first-year old dorms.”

The two plan on living together next year, but this time they’re ahead of the game. They found an apartment months ago.

West Grounds: More student apartments in Midtown

Another unremarkably named structure will soon be joining The Flats and The Uncommon student housing on West Main: The Standard.

Located across the street from The Flats on the site of the soon-to-be demolished Republic Plaza, the six-story, 70′ structure has already raised concerns about turning West Main into a canyon and about how the building will loom over Westhaven public housing across the tracks to the north.

Charlottesville native Scott Peyton is one of those perturbed about the canyon effect and disappointed The Standard was granted a special use permit for 70′, which, thanks to a rezoning earlier this year, is now a by-right use on the western end of the downtown/UVA connector.

“The special use permit should only be granted if there’s some benefit to the public,” he says.

The Standard will sit on 2.5 acres, and plans call for 189 apartments and a 499-space parking garage. The first floor will have commercial and retail tenants.

That it is the third apartment building targeting students on West Main is another concern for Peyton. “It’s shortsighted to enter that narrow a population on West Main,” he says. “They’re essentially university dorms.”

And with underage drinking an issue at UVA and elsewhere, he finds it worrisome that The Flats houses World of Beer on its first floor, while The Uncommon will feature a Hardywood microbrewery on its street level.

Blake Hurt, who built Republic Plaza in 1989 and is leasing the land for The Standard to developer Landmark Properties, takes a more benign view of the influx of students on West Main, which he says would be a problem if they were plopped in the middle of the Venable neighborhood. “West Main is in many ways separate from the surrounding neighborhoods,” he says.

He wants to capture the liveliness on the Corner and on the Downtown Mall, and he says, “That means you’ve got to have residents.” Those residents will bring restaurants and businesses to an area that for a long time has been “a dead zone,” he says.

Hurt believes West Main is the best place for high-density development and he pooh-poohs the notion that The Standard will create a canyon across the street from the 101′ Flats. “Is there a canyon on the mall?” he asks. The Standard is “six stories, not 12,” he says. “This is not a Monticello Hotel. Does that intimidate you?”

The Standard is being built by Landmark Properties out of Athens, Georgia, a company that builds luxury student housing with amenities such as infinity pools, fitness centers and granite counter-topped kitchens.

“The demand for student housing and low interest rates made the project attractive,” says Hurt.

Landmark Properties currently has $800 million in student housing projects under construction, according to its website. It created The Retreat brand, and is now building Retreats in Blacksburg and Harrisonburg.

The company has donated $665,777 to the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund, which likely means it will not be renting affordable units in The Standard. Multiple calls to Landmark VP Jason Doornbos were not returned.

Architect John Matthews says the building permit was issued in November, and the target is occupancy by late summer/early fall 2018.

Meanwhile, Republic Plaza is coming down. Does that mean an implosion in our futures?

“I think it’s far less dramatic,” says Hurt. “I think they have a machine that’s going to claw it down.”