Carbon Companies eyes College Station for senior living

A photo illustration of The Carbon Companies’ CEO Ed Garahan and College Station in Brazos County (Getty, The Carbon Companies, Aggie0083 at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 – via Wikimedia Commons)

Carbon Companies is heading into 2023 by expanding its multifamily portfolio in The Texas Triangle with a sprawling senior living development in College Station.

Dubbed Woodland Cottages College Station, the project will include 10 buildings with 60 independent living units across a 99,000-square-foot gated community, Carbon Companies told TRD. It will cost nearly $12 million to construct, or about $200,000 per unit, according to a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filing.

The development will be located at 1850 Arnold Road, next to Bachmann Park, College Station Middle School and a number of single-family neighborhoods. Construction is expected to begin next month and last until mid-2024. A fitness room and a pool are among the project’s amenities.

The firm identified a unique need for a specific type of senior housing in the city, Carbon Companies partner Mark Matise said.

“It’s an independent living option where residents have discretion over how they spend their time and money. They are not regulated to three meals a day or housekeeping every week. We can provide it, but they don’t have to use it. That attracts a more independent profile, and it is something that doesn’t exist there,” he said.

Carbon Companies currently has over $2 billion in assets and about 35,000 apartment units across the country but has kept its development attention based in Texas recently.

The company also recently filed plans for a 291-unit apartment complex on the North Side of San Antonio, costing an estimated $45 million, or about $154,600 per unit. The land was purchased for $4.4 million, the Dallas Business Journal reported.

As the home to Texas A&M University, College Station has been a popular location for multifamily projects as the steady student population and local economic growth attract developers. The region has the potential to be transformed even more if ground ever breaks on the high-speed Texas Central Railway, which includes a stop in College Station.

While Carbon has a national profile, Texas remains its main focus as a premiere growth market Matise said. Texas A&M students choosing to stay and work in College Station made it an attractive locale for a senior living development, he said.

“You have a lot of adult kids that are moving into the market and as a result, a lot of their parents are going to be near them. So College Station is a big growth market and it’s a great place for us to be,” he said.

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— Erick Pirayesh