460 Bedroom Student Housing Complex Proposed For Neff Avenue


460 Bedroom Student Housing Complex Proposed For Neff Avenue
By Scott Rogers • August 9, 2021
On August 11, 2021 the City of Harrisonburg Planning Commission will consider a request from Forbes Development to amend the proffers for a 5.44 acre parcel on Neff Avenue near its intersection with Port Republic Road. The property is currently zoned R-5C and the developer previously planned to build one, six-story mixed-use building with non-residential and multi-family residential units. The plan was for the building to include 16,000 SF of retail space such as restaurants, coffee shops, bookstores, clothing retailers, convenience stores, etc. When the developer had gone through the process of rezoning the property to R-5C and obtaining special use permits to allow for the construction of the above referenced project, the developer had referenced the building including a mix of (20) one bedroom apartments, (20) two bedroom apartments, (30) three bedroom apartments and (50) four bedroom apartments - which presumably might be student housing, or possibly not... Within a year of the rezoning and special use permits being approved, the developer began the further planning of the project but began to only reference including (100) four bedroom units -- which would clearly be designed to be entirely student housing. Now, however, the developer does not want to build the project as previously planned as a multi-family development -- with apartments over top of commercial / retail space. The developer is now asking the City for permission to amend the proffers to allow for the project to be a single six-story apartment building without any commercial or retail uses and they want the project to allow for more bedrooms in the apartments. The original proffers would have allowed for 400 bedrooms and the developer is now requesting permission to have 460 bedrooms in total. The developer indicates they are requesting the removal of the commercial/retail space because of changes in the commercial real estate market due to Covid. The developer does not seem to have spoken to their pivot from having 1, 2, 3 and 4 bedroom apartments -- to having almost all (104 of 126) four bedroom apartments. City staff does not recommend that these changes be approved because they do not believe more student housing is needed at this time. Planning Commission will now review this request and will forward their recommendation to City Council who will make the final decision about whether to allow these changes for another 460 bedrooms of student housing on Neff Avenue. Read up on more details of these proposed changes in the City Council packet here. Receive Updates by Email Recent Articles: There Are Plenty Of Types Of Houses That Exist That Just Are Not Available To Purchase Home Sales By Price Range In The City Of Harrisonburg Are You Compromising On Aspects Of Your Next Home That You Can Or Cannot Change Later? How Much Slower Are The Winter Months In Our Local Housing Market? Rockingham County and New Home Sales Drive Surge in Area Housing Market Find The Balance Between Optimistic And Realistic Home Pricing Room Size Is Difficult To Understand Solely From Real Estate Photos How Much Would You Value Not Having To Prepare Your Home For Showings? One Out Of Four Homes Is Taking Longer Than A Month To Sell Consider The Cost Of Your Planned Renovations When Planning Your Offer
Have any questions? Contact Scott Rogers at 540-578-0102 or scott@funkhousergroup.com
Based on information from the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Association of REALTORS® or its MLS, for the period Jan 1, 2000 through Nov 21, 2024 (unless otherwise noted).
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