Development
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New Housing on Stone Spring Road - Changes in Zoning |
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Per the January 18th Daily News Record, the Harrisonburg Planning Commission recommended that City Council approve a rezoning request of 72.6 acres on Stone Spring Road. Here are a few tidbits that might shed some light on the intricacies of this story:
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Condos Are Coming To Downtown Harrisonburg! |
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Urban Exchange, an exciting new mixed-use development, will be built with frontage on East Market Street and Mason Street --- within walking distance to downtown Harrisonburg and JMU campus. ![]() The six-story structure will be comprised of (196) 1, 2 and 3 bedroom condos / apartments, as well as approximately 12,000 s.f. of retail space -- to house tenants such as a coffee shop, restaurant, and other retail operations. These brand new, upscale units will be available both for sale or for lease. Amenities will include on-site parking, free internet and phone service, a state-of the-art fitness center, public space and an outdoor courtyard. Demolition on the existing structures will begin this month, and the entire project will be complete by Summer 2009. For more information about Urban Exchange, visit http://www.ueharrisonburg.com. | |
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A Brief History of Harrisonburg's Annexations |
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Annexation is the process whereby land is incorporated into an existing town or city. There have been several annexations in Harrisonburg's history, bringing the current size of the city to 11,132 acres. The largest annexation (7,450 acres) took place in 1983 --- shown in pink on the map below. (Map courtesy of the City of Harrisonburg). ![]() Title 15.2 (Counties, Cities and Towns) of the Code of Virginia outlines how annexations are to take place. Here are some recent annexation related news items: Mount Crawford seeks to annex 243 acres to expand to 467 acres. Dayton discusses annexing along Route 257. Could Harrisonburg and Rockingham County see another annexation anytime soon? According to Brian, Harrisonburg's Director of Economic Development says the city has no plans to annex any portion of Rockingham County (source: Daily News Record). On a related note, according to Keith Markel, one of Harrisonburg's previous city planners, most of the zoning frustrations stem from the 1983 annexation. Much of that land was zoned R-3, which allows anything from single family homes to apartment complexes. However, this past year, the right to build apartment complexes in R-3 zoned land was removed. | |
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Eastern Rockingham County Lot Sales - The Ups and Downs |
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![]() 2003: $47,546 (81 sales) 2004: $55,354 (112 sales) 2005: $89,112 (98 sales) 2006: $118,075 (51 sales) 2007: $110,875 (35 sales) As you can above, during this same time, demand for lots decreased rather significantly. This was compounded by the fact that the inventory of available lots increased during the same time --- there are currently 109 lots available in the Peak View school district, as follows:
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Will We Have Too Much JMU Student Housing? |
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Last week the Daily News Record reported that 3,700 residential units are under construction, which seemed to be quite a bit of housing for JMU students. Below is a bit more information that sheds some light on the matter (facts and figures provided by Harrisonburg Community Development, summary and commentary by me) . . . The "3,700 units" referenced in the Daily News Record includes projects in various stages ranging from recent rezonings to projects for which building permits have been issued. Some of the housing projects included in the "3,700 units" of housing shouldn't be aligned with college student enrollment growth: 1. Some projects were included that are just about complete and occupied (parts of Liberty Square, Beacon Hill, Millwood Condos, Sunset Heights-Holmes Addt., Westfield, and Willow Ridge). 2. Some projects are not aimed at student occupancy (Christophel Properties, Founders Way Condos, Hidden Creek Apts., Hillmont Apts., Lady Slipper Ct., Beacon Hill, Liberty Square, Miller's Homestead, Millwood Condos, Park Rose Place, The Quarry, Townes of Bluestone, Townes at Wellington Park, Wishing Well Estates II). The largest remaining projects, aimed at students would be: Campus View Condos (84) 2-3 BR units (84) 4 BR units Copper Beach (78) 1BR units (78) 2BR units (118) 3BR units (158) 4BR units Latitude 38 (96) 3 BR units (132) 4 BR units Purple and Gold TH (132) 4 BR units Sunchase (24) 4 BR units Hunters Ridge (16)-(24) 4 BR units Totaling these yields about 3,300 beds aimed at students, which turns the debate back to how many more JMU students will be enrolled in coming years. I would estimate 2,800 based on JMU and SCHEV figures --- the Daily News Record continues to estimate 4,100. No wonder developers keep coming on the scene to build more student housing! In the end, we'll just have to wait and see which projects are actually built out. Some developers may decide to hold off on their projects as they learn more about the market, or as their bankers learn more about increasing vacancy rates. | |
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Counting JMU Students |
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In most situations, it's o.k. if we aren't working with an exact number for JMU enrollment. However, many developers are currently spending a lot of money to build thousands of housing units in Harrisonburg --- many of which are intended to be occupied by JMU students. When you dig into the numbers, it starts looking like we will have a significant over-supply of college housing in the coming years . . . How Many Bedrooms?? Per today's Daily News Record, "more than 3,700 residential-housing units are under construction or in various stages of approval" --- of which 2,985 are apartments or townhouses. However, many of these are not 1-bedroom housing units, but 2, 3, or 4 bedroom. We'll assume for a moment that they average out at 2 bedrooms per unit. This provides us with 5,970 "beds" to fill --- and the article later states that by 2013, the city will need 2,500 additional beds for JMU students. Hmmmm.......so far that's 3,470 extra beds --- and I hope they aren't finished too quickly! What Is Headcount? The second problem (for developers spending lots of money on building these housing units) is that the figures being used for JMU enrollment can be a bit deceiving. The above-referenced article references 2013 enrollment as 21,500. The only enrollment projection I can find on SCHEV's web site close to 21,500 is the "Total Fall Headcount". This is defined by SCHEV as "A student enrolled for more than zero credit hours in courses offered for degree or certificate credit, or a student who meets the criteria for classification as a remedial student." My understanding is that this would include faculty or staff taking one (or more) class(es), students studying abroad, local residents taking one (or more) class(es), etc. All of these categories of "fall headcounts" wouldn't at all contribute to a demand for student housing. The Total Fall Headcount shows 21,542 students in 2013. For the best "living in Harrisonburg, needing student housing" enrollment figures, I am almost always pointed to the "Regular Session Full-Time Equivalent" data, which is defined by SCHEV as "A calculation of enrollment based on total credit hours taken byundergraduates and first professionals divided by 30 and added to totalgraduate credit hours divided by 24. Includes fall and spring semestersonly, does not include summer term enrollments. May be broken out by onand off-campus activity." This is a calculation to get a lot closer to the number of full time students will be attending JMU --- and these numbers show 19,333 students in 2013. Does it matter, or are we just splitting hairs? If you explore SCHEV's Enrollment Projections, you'll see that there are a lot of figures that can be used for estimating future JMU enrollment figures. My concern is that the figure that developers are using for their decisions is the highest number available -- and one that counts people who would not be seeking student housing. I can understand that the City and the Daily News Record use that highest figure in many situations, but when student housing developers use it for planning purposes, it may be a cause for concern. | |
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Driven Down Old Furnace Road Lately? |
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![]() Construction is booming on Old Furnace Road --- making way for "Latitude 38", a 228-unit, 800+ bedroom complex of student housing for JMU students. Some public details of the development were highlighted in the Daily News Record in August. The project is being developed by Franklin Holdings out of Charlotte, NC. Apparently they developers didn't read this, as they reference an increase of 4,000 students "over the next few years", whereas SCHEV's FTE Regular Session numbers would suggest that even all the way through 2013/2014 we'll only see a growth of 2,787 students. One thing is for sure --- students at James Madison University will certainly have a lot of housing choices in the coming years! | |
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Harrisonburg Lures Downtown Development |
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Harrisonburg is putting financial incentives in place to encourage development in downtown Harrisonburg. According to the Daily News Record (DNR) on November 14, 2007, City Council is considering extending tax break incentives to developers who are building new structures downtown. Here's the math, as I see it, per the article.... A developer invests $10M in constructing a new building to get eight year waiver of tax assessments. If the assessed value were also $10M, the total waived taxes would be $472,000 ($10M / 100 * .59 * 8). That comes out at a nearly 5% savings over 8 years --- not bad! This new proposal would be similar to the city's existing program for renovating downtown buildings. These financial incentives led to the re-development of the City Exchange building (now apartments and a restaurant). Per the DNR, "Real estate developer Barry Kelley said the historic building incentives were critical to his projects, including the renovation of the City Exchange building into apartments and a restaurant." ![]() | |
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College Student High Rise? |
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![]() According to the Daily News Record, the building will feature 274 bedrooms, and only floors two through six with have apartments, with commercial space on the first floor. | |
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Scott Rogers
Funkhouser Real
Estate Group
540-578-0102
scott@funkhousergroup.com
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