How Developers Implement Seriously Smart Amenities in Student Housing
Date Posted: October 1, 2019
Posted In: Ideas,
From REBusiness Online: Student housing amenities used to have a reputation in the popular press and in most multifamily circles for over-the-top extravagance.
“Millennials came into the space when it was an all-out amenities war,” says Madison Meier, vice president of business development at Austin, Texas-based Campus Advantage. “Everyone was on standby wondering, ‘what’s going to be the next big thing? Lazy river? Climbing wall? Golf simulator? It felt like every developer was grasping at straws to find their unique, defining amenity.”
A generational changing of the guard, along with rising construction costs, have muted some of those larger-than-life community perks. The New York Times recently interviewed Campus Advantage about this very topic, having caught wind of the company’s promotion of its intangible “success amenities.”
The article, published on June 25, says student housing amenities today directly support the gig economy through shared study spaces, sophisticated digital networks and well-planned fitness centers. Mental, social and financial health are the main aspirations of Gen Z, where extravagance takes the form of Peloton bikes and creatively designed, high-tech study nooks that do double duty as flexible social space.
Campus Advantage’s success amenities are provided by its Students First residence life program, which preps students to thrive in the new economy, where self-employment and self-promotion is important. Communities offer services such as Rent Track, which allows residents with on-time rent payments to establish a credit score while living at a Campus Advantage property. Event programming includes interactive seminars, such as resume critiques, or bringing in suits, jackets and other professional clothing and a professional photographer so that students can take headshots for profiles like LinkedIn.
“We’ve been trying to put these services at the forefront of our marketing,” Meier says. “It used to be something we marketed once the students signed leases. We’ve trained our leasing teams to say not only do we have these physical amenities, but we also offer these other unique experiences. This generation has responded very well to this.”
Jennifer Fraser, senior director of real estate with Greystar, which has approximately 30 off-campus projects in the development pipeline, says that Gen Z’s needs begin and end with Internet. “As we all know, Gen Zs are technologically very savvy,” she says. “They own an average of five internet-ready devices at any given time, and 91 percent use social media to stay connected. Amazing wifi, location to campus, security and comfort are all more critical today than the old-school luxury of highly amenitized spaces.”
To provide better internet, American Campus Communities (ACC) has started removing cable from its properties. The savings from the former cable expenses can be invested in increasing bandwidth, according to Jake Newman, senior vice president of development at American Campus Communities.