Sterling University Housing has just broken ground on a new private student housing project at UNR. Located at 2399 Valley Road at Enterprise, it is just east of the medical school.
With a construction loan of $26M, the project value is probably closer to $35M. I heard the term “high-rise” from the construction crew, and a total of 900 beds, mostly in 4 room suites. That’s pretty dense for an 8 acre site.
Sterling also developed the adjacent Highlands student housing project in 2004, but sold it off to the current owner. It is somewhere near 800 beds in 24 buildings on a 16 acre site with a LOT of parking. Some scathing REVIEWS!
Sterling seems to have a nice product, if you look at their portfolio But yeow, expensive! About $650 per month for a bedroom in a 4-plex and up to $1100 for a single one bedroom unit. And that’s on an annual lease, not on a 9 month school schedule.
My only complaint is the site. It continues the trend of locating the residential core of the university away from the social and commercial core along 9th Street and N Virginia. It makes the prospect of the Gateway Project between the University and Downtown ever happening pretty grim, and will reduce development pressure to upgrade the West University Neighborhood. The 2 acre full city block at 6th and Sierra would have been my ideal site. But this a private development, UNR had no say in its siting or design. So welcome to the 
neighborhood.
Eric said:
I smell a bubble. The demographic bulge that is driving the student housing craze dissipates at the end of the decade, which means all this new product becomes pure commodity in less than 10 years.
geopower said:
The university has been focusing all its big new buildings along the north and east sides of campus for the last 5 years, and I wouldn’t expect that to stop. It makes sense to locate some housing close to those buildings- the closer to class, the later you can sleep in. Right now there’s only Wolf Run over there for those not yer responsible enough to rent a while house. The question I have is why Wolf Run is waiting. They have 8 acres just down Valley from Sterling, and presumably not because they feel their current residents need to be able to gaze out the window at grazing cows.
David Barber said:
I hate the idea of both of these projects. As a student at UNR, I already dislike the Highlands(its location) because it makes students housing much more spread out and everyone car dependent. We should be building apartment complexes and mix-used buildings where all those sketchy motor lodges are south of 9th street.
University of Nevada has a ton of potential to help downtown, but too many projects like this and we will only be a commuter campus. We need student housing at the south and west parts of campus.
Sully said:
David, the only problem with your idea is that it makes sense. Since when do TPTB do things that make sense?
geopower said:
Actually, the problem is those sketchy motor lodges are big money makers- for the owners and for the city in room taxes. Even though a bunch of them sold during the boom, apparently they make enough to cover the mortgage on the inflated valuations, because hardly any of them show distressed. As written about here, the Mirador was the exception. But UNR has no right of eminent domain to condemn private properties just because we all wish they weren’t so skeevy.
Personally, I’d like to see a confiscatory tax on vacant parcels within the McCarran loop that aren’t being put to any beneficial use. I think empty lots in the middle of the city are an attractive nuisance, and landowners who are coat-tailing to higher property values and an eventual big payoff on everyone else’s hard work should pay for the privilege.