As Occupancy Dwindles, College Dorms Go Beyond Students


As Occupancy Dwindles, College Dorms Go Beyond Students


Real estate developers are seeking opportunities to buy student housing from strapped universities and convert them into apartments for white-collar workers.

Yeshiva University was in trouble, and Pebb Capital saw an opportunity.

The financial woes for Yeshiva, the oldest Jewish university in the United States, started in the early naughts, and by 2015, its endowment had shrunk by $90 million. To free up cash, the school began selling pieces of its real estate, including the Alabama, a student housing property in Manhattan that served students at Yeshiva’s Cardozo Law School.

Pebb Capital and its partner, TriArch Real Estate, bought the building for $58 million in 2016, blowing out interior walls and gut-renovating it to convert it from a dated dormitory into sleek, furnished apartments. The investors nearly doubled their money, selling the building for $104 million in February 2020; it now houses a mix of graduate students and young professionals.

“It’s not just students who want this sort of product,” said James Jago, Pebb’s managing director. Demand for inexpensive housing options is rising among those new to the work force.

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RSK: Interesting trend. There are few of these luxury student housing buildings adjacent to UW-Madison Campus and this might be an option for some of them.

Ken Notes: Could be fun, attend the kegger down the hall after a long day at the office...

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- - Volume: 8 - WEEK: 48 Date: 11/24/2020 8:51:35 AM -