June 9, 2009
By Carol Biliczky
Beacon Journal staff writer
Martin Mehall could use the motto, ''Build it and they will come.''
He did, and they have.
University of Akron students have snapped up all 140 beds in the first phase of an apartment complex in downtown Akron.
Mehall, the developer, said he was not surprised at student response to units that are not even finished and about one-quarter mile from campus to boot.
''The product is so good that anybody looking at it is going to want it,'' he said. ''We were pretty sure it was going to lease up. We did many, many, many surveys. Before you spend $20 million, you'd better be pretty sure.''
Mehall's Richland Communities in Middleburg Heights owns 13 apartment properties in Ohio.
One other property is geared totally to students: Campus Pointe on East Main Street in Kent, about one-quarter mile from the Kent State campus. The company is completing construction, and Mehall said he expects that complex to be full by the time students move in Aug. 22.
In Akron, the burgeoning 22 Exchange complex at Main and Exchange streets is a challenge to UA's monopoly of newer housing units for students.
UA opened its 300-bed Honors Residence Hall in August 2004 and the 476-bed Exchange Street Residence Hall in August 2007. It began to house 200 students in the Quaker Square Inn — formerly the privately owned Crowne Plaza Hotel — in January 2008.
Still, the university was 125 beds short of what it needed last fall. So it temporarily housed some students at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Akron and paid 60 students $1,000 each to cancel their housing contracts and move off campus to make way for other students.
UA's housing has been dramatically different than the cinder-block walls and gang showers of dorm rooms in decades past.
Today's students want everything from free, in-suite washers and driers to free Internet service — and Mehall made sure his projects followed suit.
His two-, three-, and four-bedroom apartments at 22 Exchange will offer granite countertops, wooden floors, private baths, free utilities and free high-speed Internet.
Rental is by the bed, not the suite, so if a student moves out or defaults, the roommates won't be responsible for that person's share. Richland Communties just finds another student to fill the bed.
A tanning salon and fitness room — both free for residents — will be part of the second phase, whose 330 beds are to open by fall 2010.
As for cost, Mehall has priced his units at 22 Exchange at $599 to $699 per month, per student. The fewer the beds in the suite, the higher the monthly cost.
That is a tad under the $794 per month, per student UA charges for the most costly apartments in the Exchange Street Residence Hall, but much of UA's housing is in the $500 to $600 range per month.
At both UA and 22 Exchange, food costs are extra. At 22 Exchange, the first floor on Main Street will be devoted to commercial space. Two leases already are signed, and Mehall said he is looking for other eateries geared to the college crowd.
Brubaker's Pub will hold a grand-opening party June 18 to mark its return to downtown Akron. The pub had been in a building that was knocked down to make way for 22 Exchange.
Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches also has signed on, Mehall said.
Students can pay for parking at city-owned lots or park in UA's nearby Polsky deck or Exchange Street deck.
Mehall said he plans to expand to still other university towns but hadn't decided where.
Carol Biliczky can be reached at 330-996-3729 or cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com.
