Private student housing might sprout behind USC’s Greek Village

Developers appear to be considering private student housing behind the University of South Carolina’s Greek Village near Olympia and downtown Columbia.

Aspen Heights, a Texas-based student communities developer, has requested a zoning change to a four-acre parcel at Catawba and Lincoln streets, a block from the Aspyre student apartments on Assembly Street, for proposed residential use.

And another national student housing developer, Houston-based Asset Plus Realty Corp., apparently had had its eye on a neighboring property across Lincoln Street from the potential Aspen Heights site. That developer, though, recently backed out of purchasing a $2.5 million, 2.3-acre lot at 875 Catawba St., according to George McCutchen of Newmark Grubb Wilson Kibler real estate company. But another student housing developer is now “expressing a lot of interest” in the property, McCutchen said.

Aspen Heights’ rezoning request, included on Monday’s city Planning Commission agenda, does not include details of potential development plans. The property is currently zoned M-2 for heavy industrial, a category that allows private dormitories. The proposed MX-2 zoning, for mixed-use urban development, also allows for private dorms as well as other potential commercial developments such as stores and restaurants.

MX-2 also would allow buildings to rise beyond the five to seven stories permitted by M-2. There is no height limit in MX-2 districts, though certain design overlays could dictate restrictions.

At the same time, City Councilman Brian DeQuincey Newman has requested a change in the conditions for private student dormitories in the MX-2 zoning district. The change would cut in half, from 600 feet to 300 feet, the buffer distance required between a dorm and single- or two-family residential lots where there are railroad tracks separating the lots. The potential Aspen Heights lot, separated by railroad tracks from USC’s fraternity and sorority community, is located in Newman’s council district.

City Council, led by a request from Mayor Steve Benjamin, secured an identical zoning amendment last fall to the conditions for private student dorms in another zoning district that would accommodate the future Peak Campus Development student apartments at Harden and Gervais streets near Five Points.

Newman said his request to amend the zoning conditions is “not indicative” that any projects will actually go through.

“There are still some voices that need to be heard,” he said.

Newman said Aspen Heights had reached out to him with interest in developing student housing on that Catawba Street property. Real estate developers all around the country are taking notice of the student housing and downtown apartment boom in Columbia, he said.

Efforts to reach representatives from Aspen Heights were unsuccessful Friday.

Aspen Heights, based in Austin, Texas, has developed student housing communities in 18 cities across the country, including Clemson and Charlotte.

City staff has recommended denying Aspen Heights’ zoning request because, under zoning plans already in place for the Innovista district, the land is set aside for incubator space near proposed research areas.

The Planning Commission is scheduled to take up the item and Newman’s request on Monday.

This story was originally published July 31, 2015 at 6:54 PM with the headline "Private student housing might sprout behind USC’s Greek Village."