Seniors are dropping up to $1.5M to live on campus again

Purchase College is the latest school to cash in on the increasing demand among seniors–senior citizens, that is–to live on campus again.

The college has a nearly $15 million unrated tax-exempt note issuance on the horizon for a development where one-bedrooms will be asking for $595,000 and two-bedrooms for $1.5 million, according to Bloomberg. Monthly maintenance fees will run up to $8,500 and the complex will be situated on 40 acres worth of prime campus real estate–though not the locations real college seniors would be hoping for.

“We wouldn’t put it on fraternity row,” said HJ Sims & Co.’s Andrew Nesi to Bloomberg. (The investment bank’s executive vice president is managing the deal between the college and the non-profit organization affiliated with the town.) The retirement community will be located close to the college’s performing arts center and its Neuberger Museum of Art.

Purchase College’s deal is the latest in a string of schools that have welcomed senior communities nearby, or onto campus, and the market has supported the move: last year, $2.4 billion worth of tax exempt bonds were sold for senior housing projects and most had acquired initial seed capital of about $20 million.

Purchase College will get $2 million in annual rent with a 10 percent increased every five years until the final years where rent will be a flat $8 million. The ground-lease is for 75 years. [Bloomberg]—Erin Hudson