- Slug: BC-CNS-Downtown Students,840
- Interactive project map available (embed code below)
- Photos, video story available (thumbnails, captions below)
By JOSHUA DELAUDER
Cronkite News
PHOENIX – Several new apartments are being built in and around Downtown Phoenix, many with amenities built exclusively for students and most within walking distance of the downtown Arizona State University campus.
These projects – five are scheduled to come online later this year – will be available to rent just around the time the new law school will be opening which could prove useful to students, many of whom will be moving downtown.
There are currently 628 students enrolled for the 2017 school year in ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, according to U.S. News and World Report. The Law School Admission Council puts the average attendance around 600 to 700. Many of these students could be looking for someplace to stay this fall.
At least five of these new apartments are being built in and around downtown Phoenix: Illuminate, Linear, Proxy 333, Edison Midtown and Capital Place Apartments.
Nate Smith, a freshman and sports journalism major at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, said he likes having all these options for apartments.
“The more options you have the more secure and confident you’d be with your decision after you’ve observed all your options,” Smith said.
A couple of new condominiums – Portland on the Park and enHance Park – are also being built downtown. But these are most likely out of the range of most college students or recent graduates: The Portland website prices the least expensive condo there at $235,000. This price is to buy, not rent.
Apartments have been getting built faster than residential home are going up, according to Ken Clark, a realtor for Home Smart Elite Group and a member of the Arizona House of Representatives.
“The last time I looked at it, last summer, there was a 6-to-1 ratio of apartments being built to owner-occupied (houses),” he said. “Meaning, for every one-owner occupied home being built, there were six apartment units (being built).”
With approximately 350 listings for vacant lots, according to Zillow, there is plenty of room for prospective projects. But many of these apartments are getting built right across the street from each other, which Clark said does not violate any kind of zoning laws.
“That’s intended and that’s not necessarily a problem,” he said.
Clark said one problem with building so many apartments in one general vicinity is that they can push out other businesses.
“My concerns about some of the developments going in downtown is that it could crowd out locally owned businesses which have been the driving force for downtown redevelopment and you could end up just having franchises,” he said.
Smith said the closeness of the apartments is not really a big issue for him.
“It just promotes some healthy competition in my opinion,” he said.
Dan Carroll, an agent with Realty One Group, said many of the contractors do a lot of research into where they want to build.
“If somebody has already got the jump on them and they have a vacant parcel across the street from a project that almost constructed or already constructed,” he said, “They aren’t going to break ground if they think they aren’t going to fill those units.”
One issue is when so many apartments going up, property taxes could go up, but it depends on the type of property, Clark said.
“If you’re talking about an apartment building that’s next to 10 little houses that have been there for 70 years, their property taxes could go up, but they’re not supposed to because (of) the assessor assessing their value based on similar homes like them,” he said. “Their property taxes might not go up, unless they’re turned into businesses.”
The cost of a current one-room apartment at the nearby student apartment, Roosevelt Point, is $990 to $1,030. This can be expensive to students on a strict budget.
Many of the student apartments can choose to charge the higher prices because of how close they are to downtown, Carroll said.
“Proximity is desirable and if something is more desirable, there is more demand for it and they can charge more,” he said.
“You can bridge the gap,” he said. “Let’s say there’s a brand-new product at a $1,000 a month and an existing product at $500 a month. Why don’t you, with the existing product, consider moving up to $750?”
Smith said many of his friends are going with the multi-room apartments, since many single apartments are expensive.
“A lot of studio rooms go for either $1,000 or above,” he said. “I think multi-room apartments are cost efficient.”
Smith said he would rather live in an expensive student apartment than a cheaper regular apartment because of the age groups.
“If it’s not an insane difference in expenses, I would much rather live around people my age because I just think that would be more fun for everyone,” he said.
^__=
Web links:
_ StoryMap embed code: <iframe src=”https://s3.amazonaws.com/uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/eecbb57d22e91a7ffde42ff341f6b8a1/new-student-apartments-and-pricing/index.html” width=”100%” height=”800″ frameborder=”0″></iframe>
^__=
Apartment construction sites like this one are not an unusual site in downtown Phoenix, due to a population boom that is being driven, in part, by the growth of the downtown campus of Arizoan State University. (Photo by Joshua Delauder/Cronkite News)
While apartment buildings account for most of the housing construction boom in downtown, there are some condominium projects in the works, like enHance Park. But those projects are priced out of reach of most college students. (Photo by Joshua Delauder/Cronkite News)