A surface parking lot near the Georgia Institute of Technology will soon have a much higher use now that it’s under contract to a buyer with plans for a student-housing tower.
The family that owns The Varsity, the dive that has been slinging chili dogs to Georgia Tech students for 96 years, is selling two acres to Landmark Properties, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported. The Athens-based developer is planning a 2,000-bed student-housing project overlooking Bobby Dodd Stadium. The address wasn’t reported, but it is adjacent to The Varsity at 61 North Avenue Northwest.
The sale price wasn’t disclosed for the site, which is close to Technology Square and MARTA’s North Avenue station, but it could be tens of millions of dollars, the outlet said. In 2018, Cousins Properties paid $37 million for 3.1 acres at 650 West Peachtree Street to develop Norfolk Southern’s $575 million headquarters.
Student housing remains a hot asset class in Atlanta, the outlet said.
“What’s driving the demand in student housing from an investment standpoint is rent growth,” Jaclyn Fitts, director of CBRE’s national student housing group, told The Real Deal in February. “It’s become an in-demand asset class.”
The owners of The Varsity, which was founded by the Gordy family in 1928 and now has eight locations, had considered redeveloping the site of its flagship near Georgia Tech and even filed paperwork to consolidate several lots. But it paused that process earlier this year, the outlet reported.
High construction costs and oversupply of apartments is causing rent prices to decline in the greater multifamily market.
This would be Landmark’s fourth student-housing development in downtown and Midtown Atlanta, bringing its portfolio to 4,000 beds.
The average asking rent in Atlanta’s apartment market tumbled 0.1 percent to $1,638 this summer, according to Yardi Matrix. The metro posted the nation’s second-biggest decline in rent growth year-over-year in the second quarter.
—Rachel Stone
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