Texas-based developer Brent Little believes he’s found the perfect place to put a 605-bed student housing community.

The site is about 3 acres along North Alafaya Trail, less than a mile from the campus of UCF, one of the largest colleges in the country.

But the property isn’t vacant and some demolition work is required before Little’s company Fountain Residential Partners can start construction. The land is currently occupied by a 60-year-old church.

“We are having to get creative,” said Little, CEO and president of Fountain Residential. “There’s no new land, so typically we are tearing something down. Across the country, we’ve torn down everything from K-marts to biker bars to piano shops” to make way for student housing.

A short drive away, another developer is planning to raze a Golden Corral restaurant on State Road 50 and replace it with a 556-bed student housing community.

These are but two examples of projects in the works that aim to bring UCF’s growing student population more off-campus housing options, according to a report in GrowthSpotter. A recent report by Cushman & Wakefield found that Orlando has more off-campus student housing projects in the development pipeline than anywhere else in Florida.

As of March, when the study was conducted, there were a total of 32 student housing projects that either recently opened or are in the works across the Sunshine State. Of the projects highlighted in the report, six of them, totaling 5,241 beds, are either planned or under construction near the University of Central Florida’s campus.

And since that study was commissioned, plans have been filed to Orange County that seek to deliver another 3,005 student beds to the area.

“Orlando is certainly a top-tier market,” said Travis Prince, who leads Cushman & Wakefield’s national Student Housing Capital Markets Team from his office in Tampa. He expects even more projects to emerge here.

“Generally speaking, the investment appetite (for student housing) will be strong in Orlando in the foreseeable future,” he added. “I think enrollment will continue to grow and as a result, there will be a continued need for housing, and I think developers will be doing their best to meet that need.”

There are several reasons why Orlando is leading the way in student housing projects. UCF’s size as one of the largest public colleges in the nation plays a role. It is also running out of off-campus housing. The occupancy rate for off-campus housing is at 99%, according to the report.

Little has been tracking the Orlando market ever since he built his first student housing projects here in the early 1990s. Since then, he’s watched UCF’s student population soar from 33,453 students in 2000 to more than 70,000 students today.

“It’s phenomenal,” Little said, of the school’s growth. “Even with as much student housing as you see being built (in Orlando), there haven’t been 30,000 beds built there in the last 20 years. Regardless of how fast the production of student housing seems to be, it can’t keep up with the growth of the university there. The demand for the product is still outpacing the supply in the marketplace.”

The demand is why he approached the pastor of New Life Church of God about buying the property. If given approval by Orange County, Fountain Residential will tear down the church building at 2820 N Alafaya Trail, and replace it with a five-story, 253-unit community.

More and more churches are selling off land for residential development

In total, Little has developed more than 50 student housing communities nationwide throughout his career. He said he isn’t surprised that Orlando has more student housing projects underway than anywhere else in Florida.

“I’ve built in Gainesville, I’ve had properties in Tallahassee and I’m very familiar with FAU and FIU,” he said. “I’m very familiar with all of the other locations and none of those markets are as good as the UCF market.”

While some student housing developers are seeking out sites with old churches or restaurants, others are turning to a large swath of land just west of UCF’s campus.

The Quadrangle PD, which spans roughly 470 acres to the west of UCF, has historically been designated for office use. But developers in recent years have been chipping away at the 2.4 million square feet of office entitlements on the vacant property in favor of student housing projects.

Three of the six projects either under construction or planned near UCF are destined for the vast Quadrangle tract.

It’s uncommon for such an expansive swath of land to suddenly open up for student housing development near a large university, said Prince with Cushman and Wakefield.

“I think that’s certainty an isolated phenomenon to Orlando,” Prince said.

The arrival of more off-campus housing is a welcome sight to UCF leaders.

Mark Schlueb, the college’s director of strategic communications, told GrowthSpotter that more off-campus housing is needed for a college that has just 7,200 on-campus beds.

“Our on-campus housing has always been in high demand,” Schlueb said. “But over the past few years, we’ve seen our housing units fill up very quickly. Given this demand, many students choose to live in one of the many nearby off-campus apartment complexes designed specifically for students.”

To read more about this project or other early-stage development in Central Florida, go to GrowthSpotter.com and subscribe.