Luxury student housing complex coming to east side of Olympia mill village

A student housing complex under construction off Assembly Street behind Seawell’s banquet hall, markets itself as a mid-price luxury, mid-distance from USC alternative that avoids downtown rental rates and parking hassles.

The Orchard’s strategy appears to be working.

The nine, four-bedroom duplexes set to open in August are 100 percent leased, five months out, according to Athens, Ga.-based CollegeTown Properties. The complex is at the back edge of the Olympia mill village neighborhood and within a mile of downtown.

“We’re in the middle, where we can get good proximity to college campuses and still offer students the privacy of more stand-alone-type structures where they don’t have people above and below them,” Orchard property manager Chase Lawrence said Thursday.

The 72 Orchard residents primarily will face Virginia Street east to west, and parking will be in the rear of the cottages.

CollegeTown Properties has similar housing in Athens, home of the University of Georgia, and in Clemson, Lawrence said.

The Columbia development is in a mixed-use area of aging rental, owner-occupied homes and light-industrial businesses. Lawrence said the company has tried to be conscious of the neighborhood.

Residents of the area are not opposed to more University of South Carolina student housing, said Vi Hendley, Olympia Residents Council chairwoman. “Student housing is an inevitable use (of the land in Richland County),” she said.

“We were very disappointed in the loss of the beautiful trees,” Hendley said of old oaks along Virginia Street that were severely cut for the development. “We found it interesting that they call themselves The Orchard, yet there’s only one tree standing (untouched).”

Each duplex is four-bedrooms, with four-and-a-half bathrooms, and comes with granite counter tops, stainless-steel appliances, tile backsplashes, hardwood floors, alarm systems, pest control, theater system, and groundskeeping.

The $545-per-month bedroom cost also includes Internet service, cable, and garbage service. Students pay for electricity and water.

CollegeTown’s strategy is to let major student housing players position themselves in a market, then wait a year or two to see if there is demand that has not been met, Lawrence said.

“Right now, for Columbia, I’m seeing a lot of downtown development, a lot of mid-rise, high-rise-type development, and then we’ve seen a lot of established, cottage or garden development on the fringe – that being three, four-plus miles, away (from the center of campus). We want to be in the middle of that.”

This story was originally published April 2, 2015 at 8:12 PM with the headline "Luxury student housing complex coming to east side of Olympia mill village."