- June 9th, 2006, 11:37 pm
#17837
Now if we could just get a PARKING DECK!!!
http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Sate ... 5819&path=
LU reaches for the sky with dorm project
By Ron Brown
rbrown@newsadvance.com
June 10, 2006
Struggling to keep up with the housing needs of booming enrollment, Liberty University is planning to build a new high-rise dormitory for the 2007-08 school year.
The 14-story building would be constructed on the university’s East Campus, which is on the opposite side of U.S. 460 from the school’s main campus.
It would be the third-tallest building in Lynchburg. The downtown Bank of the James and Allied Arts buildings are 19 and 17 stories high, respectively.
The new dorm would include 350 rooms, designed to accommodate 700 students. The dorm also would include recreational rooms, study rooms and areas for general social activities.
In order to build the high rise, LU would have to seek an amendment to its conditional-use permit, which currently limits it to buildings similar to existing ones on campus.
“The tall building will require a change to existing zoning,” said Jerry Falwell Jr., the school’s vice chancellor.
He said the high-rise would provide a more practical use of the school’s money and its land, considering the school’s rapid growth.
The school’s on-campus student body has increased by about 1,200 students per year over the past three or four years.
This fall, LU will have about 9,600 students attending classes on campus and expects to approach the 11,000 mark by next year.
Five four-story dorms are being built to accommodate this fall’s increase in residential students.
The new dorms will cost $3.6 million, with an additional $1.6 million in excavation costs. School officials said building a high-rise would give them more rooms, while limiting the amount of excavation and campus sprawl.
The new high-rise will be needed to absorb the bulk of the school’s increased residential population.
“If our calculations are right, we’ll be right on the money,” Falwell Jr. said.
As is, about 62 percent, or 5,952 students, are expected to seek on-campus housing in fall 2006.
If the school’s growth trend continues, nearly 6,700 students will be housed on campus in 2007-08.
As LU’s on-campus residential population grows, the number of students seeking off-campus housing also has increased.
“I’ve been talking to apartment owners with properties all over town,” Falwell Jr. said. “They are filling up on Liberty people.”
This fall, a projected 3,648 LU students will seek off-campus housing. By next year, that number likely will jump to 4,104 students living away from campus.
Bruce Gallier, who owns about 100 rental properties in Lynchburg and Campbell County, said about 80 percent of his clients are Liberty affiliated.
“I usually fill up in August,” he said. “I filled up in May this year.”
Gallier said he’s in the process of building 60 new townhomes off Leesville Road.
He decided to lease the first five.
“I rented them in less than a week,” he said. “They all went to Liberty students. It’s what you would call a landlord’s haven.”
Kevin Foster, who builds apartment and townhomes in the Wyndhurst community, also has a fair amount of Liberty-affiliated business.
He said 38 percent of 52 apartments in Wyndhurst’s City Place have LU occupants.
LU-related buyers have purchased 15 percent of 26 townhomes in City Place.
Foster, the president of Foster Construction, said LU clients occupy 25 to 30 percent of the townhomes he’s built in Wyndhurst’s Northwynd community.
Rick Tomlin of Tomlin Associates said the families of students sometimes decide to come to Lynchburg to live while the student is in school.
“We try to accommodate as many people as we can,” he said. “There have been times we’ve been full and could not accommodate them.”
Tomlin, who rents about 400 units, said the success of LU has been “a plus for Lynchburg.”
With future housing needs in mind, LU officials recently met with developers of the proposed 113-acre Cornerstone development planned for Greenview Drive. Developers there plan to build between 650 and 1,000 residential homes centered around nearly 100,000 square feet of retail shops. The homes will be mostly townhouses or apartment buildings, some that will reach six stories high.
The developers are “talking about tailoring a portion of the development for Liberty students,” Falwell Jr. said.
The university itself is trying to entice a developer to build off-campus housing on 40 to 50 acres of land owned by LU in Campbell County near the school’s East Campus. The school would be a partial owner in the project, which is designed to have 300 to 400 housing units.
The proposed development could serve as alternative housing if the high rise is not ready for fall 2007.
“We could rent these off-campus units for one semester,” Falwell Jr. said.
The rent for the units would be in the $500 range, Falwell Jr. said.
“It would be primarily for Liberty University folks,” he said.
Falwell said the proposed project is not designed to take business away for other apartment- building developers.
The school is concerned about keeping pace with its record growth.
“We’re not trying to house all our off-campus students,” he said.
“There is still a lot of business to go around. A large number of students will still need to find apartments in town.”
http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Sate ... 5819&path=
LU reaches for the sky with dorm project
By Ron Brown
rbrown@newsadvance.com
June 10, 2006
Struggling to keep up with the housing needs of booming enrollment, Liberty University is planning to build a new high-rise dormitory for the 2007-08 school year.
The 14-story building would be constructed on the university’s East Campus, which is on the opposite side of U.S. 460 from the school’s main campus.
It would be the third-tallest building in Lynchburg. The downtown Bank of the James and Allied Arts buildings are 19 and 17 stories high, respectively.
The new dorm would include 350 rooms, designed to accommodate 700 students. The dorm also would include recreational rooms, study rooms and areas for general social activities.
In order to build the high rise, LU would have to seek an amendment to its conditional-use permit, which currently limits it to buildings similar to existing ones on campus.
“The tall building will require a change to existing zoning,” said Jerry Falwell Jr., the school’s vice chancellor.
He said the high-rise would provide a more practical use of the school’s money and its land, considering the school’s rapid growth.
The school’s on-campus student body has increased by about 1,200 students per year over the past three or four years.
This fall, LU will have about 9,600 students attending classes on campus and expects to approach the 11,000 mark by next year.
Five four-story dorms are being built to accommodate this fall’s increase in residential students.
The new dorms will cost $3.6 million, with an additional $1.6 million in excavation costs. School officials said building a high-rise would give them more rooms, while limiting the amount of excavation and campus sprawl.
The new high-rise will be needed to absorb the bulk of the school’s increased residential population.
“If our calculations are right, we’ll be right on the money,” Falwell Jr. said.
As is, about 62 percent, or 5,952 students, are expected to seek on-campus housing in fall 2006.
If the school’s growth trend continues, nearly 6,700 students will be housed on campus in 2007-08.
As LU’s on-campus residential population grows, the number of students seeking off-campus housing also has increased.
“I’ve been talking to apartment owners with properties all over town,” Falwell Jr. said. “They are filling up on Liberty people.”
This fall, a projected 3,648 LU students will seek off-campus housing. By next year, that number likely will jump to 4,104 students living away from campus.
Bruce Gallier, who owns about 100 rental properties in Lynchburg and Campbell County, said about 80 percent of his clients are Liberty affiliated.
“I usually fill up in August,” he said. “I filled up in May this year.”
Gallier said he’s in the process of building 60 new townhomes off Leesville Road.
He decided to lease the first five.
“I rented them in less than a week,” he said. “They all went to Liberty students. It’s what you would call a landlord’s haven.”
Kevin Foster, who builds apartment and townhomes in the Wyndhurst community, also has a fair amount of Liberty-affiliated business.
He said 38 percent of 52 apartments in Wyndhurst’s City Place have LU occupants.
LU-related buyers have purchased 15 percent of 26 townhomes in City Place.
Foster, the president of Foster Construction, said LU clients occupy 25 to 30 percent of the townhomes he’s built in Wyndhurst’s Northwynd community.
Rick Tomlin of Tomlin Associates said the families of students sometimes decide to come to Lynchburg to live while the student is in school.
“We try to accommodate as many people as we can,” he said. “There have been times we’ve been full and could not accommodate them.”
Tomlin, who rents about 400 units, said the success of LU has been “a plus for Lynchburg.”
With future housing needs in mind, LU officials recently met with developers of the proposed 113-acre Cornerstone development planned for Greenview Drive. Developers there plan to build between 650 and 1,000 residential homes centered around nearly 100,000 square feet of retail shops. The homes will be mostly townhouses or apartment buildings, some that will reach six stories high.
The developers are “talking about tailoring a portion of the development for Liberty students,” Falwell Jr. said.
The university itself is trying to entice a developer to build off-campus housing on 40 to 50 acres of land owned by LU in Campbell County near the school’s East Campus. The school would be a partial owner in the project, which is designed to have 300 to 400 housing units.
The proposed development could serve as alternative housing if the high rise is not ready for fall 2007.
“We could rent these off-campus units for one semester,” Falwell Jr. said.
The rent for the units would be in the $500 range, Falwell Jr. said.
“It would be primarily for Liberty University folks,” he said.
Falwell said the proposed project is not designed to take business away for other apartment- building developers.
The school is concerned about keeping pace with its record growth.
“We’re not trying to house all our off-campus students,” he said.
“There is still a lot of business to go around. A large number of students will still need to find apartments in town.”
Isaiah 33:1
Woe to you, O destroyer, you who have not been destroyed!
Woe to you, O traitor, you who have not been betrayed!
Woe to you, O destroyer, you who have not been destroyed!
Woe to you, O traitor, you who have not been betrayed!
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