The long awaited opening of the Mazza Grandmarc took place today as the first graduate students were allowed to move in.  The primary move in date for non graduate students will be August 22nd.  I spoke with the on site manager who told me the Mazza is now around 45% full (it was under 10% full when rethink college park visited there a few months back).  A little over 60 people will be moving in today which is a around 10% of the total capacity for the apartment complex (around 630 beds).   Two aspects about the Mazza that excite me the most are that it is connected to the Paint Branch Bike Trail system which leads to the University of Maryland campus and that it has its own UMD DOTS bus route.  Hopefully students will take advantage of these ecological friendly options when deciding how to get to campus which would help minimize the traffic impact that the Mazza will create.

I won’t write too much about the Mazza Grandmarc as there is already a long history of articles on it on this site, but the Mazza property owners are still trying to buy the properties directly on Route One in front of the apartment complex so they can build decent retail establishments there.  Hopefully the opening of the Mazza today is just the start of a redevelopment process that will both beautify a section of Route One and lead to more high quality dining and shopping options in College Park.  Despite the fact that the Mazza is finally opening today this project is still a work in progress in terms of its full potential.

About 15 people turned out Monday for the RTCP-sponsored tour of the nearly complete 630-bed Mazza GrandMarc graduate student housing community in northern College Park. Half of the City Council was in attendance along with interested community members and the press. Each got the opportunity to tour the complex’s different unit configurations (1-4 bedrooms), check out the communal amenities (pool, weight-room, study areas), see the extensive stormwater management system in the rear of the building, and walk down the new community trail connection to the Paint Branch Stream Valley.

The consensus seemed to be that the building’s interior was quite nice and high end. The unit layouts are a bit larger than other newly-constructed student housing in the area. They also boast 9-ft ceilings, sweeping forested views, furnished rooms, and higher-end kitchens. There was some grumbling about the rental prices which range from $889 to $1560 a bed depending on whether you’re talking about a 4br unit or 1br unit. That’s comparable to other similar new-construction private student housing complexes like University View and University Town Center…. but Mazza is in a decidedly less desirable location to those buildings. Its is close to the beltway and CP grocery store, but Mazza’s Route 1 facing 10,000 SF retail component is at least 2 years away and there aren’t tons of amenities in the immediate area… Shuttle UM will provide service to campus every 20 minutes during the day come fall.

Concerns were raised that rental prices were high for a project that was sold to the community during the development review process as a graduate student housing complex. Graduate students generally don’t have as much money as undergrads (whose parents often foot rent bills) and some are worried the complex will end up being predominantly undergrads. RTCP feels it’s important to remember that Mazza was always intended to be market-rate student housing. It’s not subsidized in any way and at a cost of$43 million, the developer has substantial loans to pay off. It also took considerable risk on their part and 10 years to get the project from concept to completion. Nobody is “making a killing” here. The developer is legally required to only lease to grad students until April 1 each year at which time they can (and did) open up leasing to undergrads. That said, many new grad students don’t enroll at UMD until April 15th. It shouldn’t be any surprise then that this building (which most people have never heard of) is currently only 10% leased for the Fall 2010 semester. Applications are now rolling in and many of the 1-br units are already filled.

Mazza has reserved 1/3 of its units in one section of the building exclusively for graduate students and is providing generous deals only for grad students including 10% off rent and reduced fees through its “Graduate VIP Program.” Mazza leasing agents predict about half the building will be grad students when all is said and done this fall. These measures go above and beyond what is legally required of the developer. Not only are they good faith efforts to deliver on the developer’s promise of a grad student community, but they also reflect the stiff competition that exists for student tenants in College Park.  With 2,700 other designated student beds coming on line in College Park by Fall semester 2011, student rents will stagnate across the city. They have nowhere to go but down.

Don’t forget that RTCP’s Mazza GrandMarc Hard Hat tour is today. The building is located just north of Jordan Kitt’s Music at 9530 Baltimore Avenue. Please arrive at 5:30 PM. RTCP will run a carpool from City Hall at 5:15PM. RSVP HERE. Background:

Rethink College Park is extremely pleased to announce that it’s sponsoring a “hard hat tour” of the nearly complete Mazza GrandMarc Student housing project in North College Park. Ten years in the making, Mazza’s final approval was the subject of a protracted battle between student leaders, Rethink College Park and County Councilman Tom Dernoga in 2007. Once the retail portion of the project is complete, it will be the first transit-ready, mixed-use redevelopment project in northern College Park. Leasing has already begun for the Fall 2010 semester.

The $43 million, 630-bed complex is geared primarily towards University of Maryland graduate students, will be serviced by Shuttle UM and provides a public trail connection to Paint Branch Trail just behind the complex. The event is open to the entire community. Citizens, students, prospective tenants, local leaders and press are all welcome.

When: Arrive May 17th @ 5:30 PM (tour to begin promptly at 5:45)

Where: 9530 Baltimore Avenue just north of Jordan Kitt’s Music. The group will convene just in front of the new leasing office in the permanent building..

What: Leasing agents will be on hand to provide a guided tour of the nearly complete project and the adjacent Paint Branch Trail connection. RTCP staff will field questions about the project and it’s implications for Smart Growth in College Park.

Rethink College Park is extremely pleased to announce that it’s sponsoring a “hardhat tour” of the nearly complete Mazza GrandMarc Student housing project in North College Park. Ten years in the making, Mazza’s final approval was the subject of a protracted battle between student leaders, Rethink College Park and County Councilman Tom Dernoga in 2007. Once the retail portion of the project is complete, it will be the first transit-ready, mixed-use redevelopment project in northern College Park. Leasing has already begun for the Fall 2010 semester.

The $43 million, 630-bed complex is geared primarily towards University of Maryland graduate students, will be serviced by Shuttle UM and provides a public trail connection to Paint Branch Trail just behind the complex. The event is open to the entire community. Citizens, students, prospective tenants, local leaders and press are all welcome.

When: Arrive May 17th @ 5:30 PM (tour to begin promptly at 5:45)

Where: 9530 Baltimore Avenue just north of Jordan Kitt’s Music. The group will convene just in front of the new leasing office in the permanent building.

What: Leasing agents will be on hand to provide a guided tour of the nearly complete project and the adjacent Paint Branch Trail connection. RTCP staff will field questions about the project and it’s implications for Smart Growth in College Park.

RTCP will provide a carpool from College Park City Hall which will leave promptly at 5:15 PM. Please RSVP for the event on Facebook and comment if you will be a driver or passenger in the carpool.

When I saw it, I could hardly believe my eyes.  Seven links down on a basic Google search for “Mazza Granmarc” there it was staring back at me from across cyberspace: the leasing website for the first purely private student housing project to open in College Park in five years. It’ll be the only (private) dedicated graduate student housing project of its kind in the city and one of the few economic development projects College Park was able to capitalize on during the real estate boom. That’s thanks in part to Rethink College Park’s tireless advocacy for it and our productive friendship with the Graduate Student Government. It was a fight that took us from City Hall, to Annapolis, and then on to Upper Marlboro.

No the project isn’t perfect. It’s about a mile and a half from campus and, as we pointed out in June 2007, it includes a whooping 637 parking spaces for a 630 bed (231-unit) complex. The project will have a 8 foot wide pedestrian/bike connection to the Paint Branch Trail to its rear and frequent Shuttle-UM service to campus. There will also be a retail section that will front Route 1, but we are unsure of the timing on that. At $43 million, we still believe Mazza was the right choice. It brings decent, affordable housing to a forgotten segment of UMD’s student population and puts them much closer to the University than they would have been otherwise… and in a transit/bike-friendly complex to boot.

Our guess is that a good bit of the garage will be empty and the bike parking will be inadequate. The latter issue is a problem we’ve noticed next to the University View.  We’ll dive more into these two issues in short order.