urbanMSP

I know that this is a pretty small building, so it'll go up faster than I expect, but I feel like this is way behind schedule if they intend to be ready for move-in by the end of August.

This looks to be topped out, but nowhere near ready for a move in date when school starts. Poor planning since you would basically have to bank on kids moving out of the dorms during the school year to get any renters.

While there is an apartment rush in August, people move all the time, every month in fact.

That is true for the general population, but not for a student attending the U. And that is the target market for this project. Very very few people move during the school year by choice.

I'm wondering if their plan is to be ready by January, for people moving out of the dorms or transferring to the U. There's not huge numbers of such people, but then this isn't a very big building either.

Good call. Plus, I am sure the older portion has already been renovated and ready for move in weekend.

Yep. That part was advertising for tenants all summer.

That is true for the general population, but not for a student attending the U. And that is the target market for this project. Very very few people move during the school year by choice.

In spring 2014 there were 2300 students who were newly enrolled or transfers from other colleges (out of a total Twin Cities campus enrolment of c. 47,000). Are all of them looking for near-campus housing? Probably not. So, the mid-academic-year apartment seeking market is not huge but it's there.

That doesn't include students returning from study abroad, though, who are probably actually pretty likely to be looking for this kind of place.

That doesn't include students returning from study abroad, though, who are probably actually pretty likely to be looking for this kind of place.

Indeed, and there are several hundred a semester of those, though apparently spring is slightly more popular for semesters abroad than fall (makes sense if you're trying to avoid the worst of the winter).

While I imagine most leases for units around the U are on an academic year or 9 month basis, there is more turnover of tenants through sub-leasing. People fall out with their roommates, drop out of school etc ...

I studied abroad in the fall of my senior year at the U and ended up finding a sublease in January, so I'm one such example.

That said, it's still a fairly small market compared to the September move-in rush. And the bigger issue is that it definitely gets you stuck with leases ending at a much slower time. A 12-month lease that starts in January is turned over...in January of the following year.

Sure, you can have them sign a 9-month lease to get you to September or something similar, but that's an extra complication that renters may be wary of. Landlords around here really want to be on the September schedule if at all possible. I kept the same landlord that I sublet from, but moved into a two bedroom as I needed to get a roommate. Its lease ran through the end of May, so to get it on schedule, the landlord gave me the 2-bedroom apartment for a 1-bedroom price through the whole summer before having me sign a new lease that ran September to August.

They say that this project is now set to open in Jan 2015. I'd say they mean the refurbished older portion as the new construction does not look like it could be done by Christmas.

Wow that's bigger than I thought it was going to be from the plan!

I kinda want to tour this when it's all done. It's just so unique. It would be cool to hear from the developer the challenges they faced in design and construction.

P.S. Does anyone else share my love for balconies that employ a shared support column throughout the floors like that? Midtown Lofts (in Uptown) has them.

I kinda want to tour this when it's all done. It's just so unique. It would be cool to hear from the developer the challenges they faced in design and construction.

P.S. Does anyone else share my love for balconies that employ a shared support column throughout the floors like that? Midtown Lofts (in Uptown) has them.

Do you love the Balconies on Elan II then? I do!

I like it. Looking at some of the buildings that have been going up, these balconies have to be really expensive to build. Every time you add a corner you're increasing the costs for pretty much all stages of finishing, and a lot of these projects put a balcony in a flat wall, adding 4 corners to deal with. So something is a way eliminate that extra cost (the other way being cantilevered balconies, but I think I like these better).

Hopefully named after Mike Gould

P2080053 by streetsmn, on Flickr

P2080052 by streetsmn, on Flickr

I actually really like the look of these. Skinnier and actually to scale for the area