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November 3, 2006 > News > Rice buys nearby property for possible grad student housing

Rice buys nearby property for possible grad student housing

By Risa Gordon | Thresher Editorial Staff

Plans to build new graduate student apartments near the Rice Village are being developed and will probably be presented to the Board of Trustees at its spring meeting, Housing and Dining Director Mark Ditman said.

Rice acquired six lots on the north side of Shakespeare Road for a confidential amount in two separate August purchases, Rice Real Estate Officer Janie Bowes said. Rice already owned four lots, which were purchased in 2001, on the north side of the street as well as existing apartments on the south side of Shakespeare. Rice now owns about 1.8 acres on the north side of the street.

Ditman said Rice decided to purchase the land because it wants to be able to provide university-owned housing, but developers are purchasing much of the available land around campus to build expensive homes.

“There’s always a lot of demand for nearby affordable apartments,” Ditman said.

He said Rice is in the process of selecting an architecture firm and has only very preliminary ideas for the housing. However, Rice conducted due diligence — the process of checking for property restrictions and feasibility studies — before it purchased the lots.

Ditman said the feasibility study suggested buildings on the north side of Shakespeare could be demolished to make room for an apartment building with 120 two-bedroom units. The structure would increase the number of university-owned apartment units to 240 from 165. Currently, Rice owns 112 apartments in the Graduate Student Apartments on 1515 Bissonnet St., several blocks north of the east side of campus, 20 apartments on the north side of Shakespeare and 33 apartments on the south side of Shakespeare. The apartments on the north side of Shakespeare would be renovated, Ditman said.

He said the preliminary idea is for a four-story high LEED-certified building that would cost about $15-17 million. Ditman said the goal would be to have the units ready by Fall 2008.

Although the building probably would not have meal facilities, there would be an effort to include common spaces, Ditman said.

“There will be some care taken to have some community spaces because the value of interaction … is high for grad students just like it is for undergrads,” he said.

Constructing off-campus housing is cheaper than on-campus housing. Additionally, in the current university-owned housing on Bissonnet and Shakespeare, users pay for operating costs. Current rent for university-owned off-campus housing is below market for the area, Ditman said.

“Some of the challenges [in building the apartments] will be to create something that’s acceptable to the neighborhood, something that’s efficient and — because it’s students — we’ll want to offer these at the lowest rental rates we can,” Ditman said.

Since the Graduate Apartments currently have a waiting list, Ditman said he thinks there is sufficient demand for the extra units. He said it is possible that undergraduates will be allowed to live in the apartments. Rice has to limit the housing to its students in order to qualify for a tax exemption.

Architecture graduate student Brad Nauher said living in the Graduate Student Apartments is convenient, and since he knows of students who were unable to live in the apartments due to space constraints, he thinks there is demand for more housing.

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