A North Carolina-based student housing management company has a proposal develop new luxury student apartments on Valley Street in South Orange. The project will be unaffiliated with Seton Hall University, but could serve as another location for students to live.
“We’re going to negotiate our best and final offer,” Village President Sheena Collum said at the Board of Trustees meeting on Dec. 10, according to The Village Green’s article, “South Orange Debates Student Housing Project Proposed for Valley Street.” “I believe that we can work through this and make this happen,” Collum said. “But we’ve heard some concerns. Let’s take one final stab at this.”
At the meeting, Kyle Petrelli, co-founder of Stolar Capital, Jake Feldman of Vertical Realty Capital, and Adam Byrley, COO of Preiss Company Student Housing Experts, a student housing management company hosted a presentation, according to The Village Green’s article.
According to the article, Petrelli went on to describe a “51-suite, 177-bed development that would cater to Seton Hall University.” There was also a discussion on the size and slope of the site. “It’s also a very narrow site,” Petrelli said. “Student housing allows more flexible housing.”
In addition to the slope of the site, the property, according to The Village Green’s article, is “in two different zones—a commercial in zone towards the front and a residential zone towards the back.” It was also noted that the height of the building exceeded the zoned height restrictions.
According to the article, Petrelli also said that they are proposing 62 parking spaces for the project “as students would walk to campus, bike or use the SHUfly shuttle” in comparison to the 102 spaces required for a residential building.
Timothy Moran, the Director of Housing and Residence Life at Seton Hall, commented on the project and its possible effect on student housing.
“I feel that it could be a great opportunity for our commuter students to live close to the University,” Moran said.
Moran stated that around 75% of incoming freshmen choose to live on campus. “We work very closely to make sure that the freshmen that need to live on campus or want to live on campus are provided housing on campus,” Moran said.
“Since coming on board in the summer of 2017, everyone who has wanted housing on campus has been offered housing.”
Moran also described the challenges that housing has faced in recent years because there are more enrolled students than there are beds.
“Since my time I have developed a housing prediction model to help with predictions moving forward,” Moran said. “This helps us know where we are at with housing, how many we expect to drop out during the summer and what our waitlist should look like for the fall.
This past year, as previously reported by The Setonian, the University has admitted the largest freshman class in its history. Moran commented on this figure stating that, “We continue to guarantee the first 1,150 returning students housing along with the first 1,150 incoming students housing.”
He continued to say that, as per the prediction model the Office of Admissions continues to give feedback on enrollment goals which helps housing provide feedback on the prediction of incoming freshman who will seek housing. “This has been very helpful in working with Admissions to keep us on the same page,” Moran said.
Taina Vasquez, a junior criminal justice major, commented on the proposed project and the new possibilities it brings for student housing if approved.
“I think that this new student housing could be a good idea if the price is affordable and reasonable within the budget of college students,” Vasquez said. “I think that this can ease the strain on housing at SHU and this could not only benefit the school but also students who may have been on the waitlist or rejected from housing”
Moran concluded with a comment on the possibility of placing incoming freshmen or transfer students in residence halls typically held for upperclassmen.
“This past summer we made the commitment to not have any transfer students in Aquinas hall, which is something that we did before,” Moran said. “Because of this we held 1st floor of Neumann for transfer students.
As the enrollment number continued to grow, we made the decision to made Neumann 1st Floor all freshmen and house the incoming transfer students in other spots around campus which had been vacated after housing selection by returning students.”
Moran stated that there is always the possibility of utilizing other spaces around campus to accommodate housing demands for students.
“Currently we plan to move forward with Boland and Aquinas being home to our freshmen and Xavier, the Complex and our off-campus housing being home to our returning students.”
Rhania Kamel can be reached at rhania.kamel.student.shu.edu.
