Columbia part of record $2B student housing build by Georgia company

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The hammers of Landmark Properties were coming down not only in Columbia in the weeks before the fall semester.

The company that changed the skyline around the University of South Carolina campus this summer with delivery of The Standard was at that same time busy completing work on nine other student housing projects around the country.

All 10 of them — with a total value of $2 billion — were complete in time for fall classes, according to Landmark Properties, based in Athens, Ga. The 8,195 bed spaces built by Landmark made up more than a quarter of all student housing deliveries this fall in the United States, the company said in a news release.

It is the largest off-campus single-year portfolio ever delivered in the student housing sector, according to Landmark Properties. 

“Student housing continues to outperform other real estate asset classes, providing stable cash flow during the Great Financial Crisis, COVID, and now, in the face of historic rate increases and challenged capital markets,” Wes Rogers, president and CEO of Landmark Properties, said in the news release. “From an operational standpoint, student housing has never performed better. We’re experiencing record rent growth and occupancy. The challenging capital markets and elevated construction costs are making development deals more difficult to pencil, but with steady enrollment growth at the top universities, the supply and demand fundamentals should continue to be very strong for the foreseeable future. I’m proud of the team’s successful execution of this record number of deliveries.”

As part of Landmark Properties’ vertically integrated process, the firm’s construction arm, Landmark Construction, served as the general contractor for seven of the 10 properties delivered this fall.

“By leveraging expert design to facilitate the construction and completion of many of the communities it manages, Landmark has dedicated resources — on- and off-site — for every project from start to finish, with high-quality, low-cost results that reflect the ultimate off-campus student living experience,” the company said in the release.

With more than $11.7 billion in assets under management across more than 100 properties — 68,000 beds — Landmark has been named the top student housing developer by Student Housing Business for the last seven years. The company is also delivering four non-student housing residential projects in 2023, the release said.

The Standard at Columbia is at 1401 Assembly St., two blocks from the University of South Carolina campus. It was completed in August with 678 beds and 247 units in a mix of studios to five bedrooms and a mix of amenities that includes a clubhouse, elevated pool deck, fitness center spa, study lounge with café, and a sports simulator. The Standard at Columbia was developed in partnership with Chicago-based CRG; Clayco served as general contractor.

Related article: New 17-story student housing tower opens in downtown Columbia

The other Landmark Properties projects completed ahead of fall classes included The Standard at College Park, near the University of Maryland; The Standard at Bloomington, more than 1,000 beds for students at Indiana University; The Standard at Philadelphia, adjacent the campuses of the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University; The Standard at Seattle, which is Landmark’s largest project to date with 1,545 beds, near the University of Washington; The Retreat at Fayetteville, on Razorback Road near the University of Arkansas; The Legacy at Centennial, a 32-story project next to Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, which serves students at Georgia State and the Atlanta University Center Consortium; The Mark Austin near the University of Texas; and The Metropolitan Gainesville, housing for students at the University of Florida.