A property owner near UCF’s main campus is the latest developer to propose an off-campus student housing project for the area.

Suffern, NY-based Castle Lanterra purchased the 129,087-square-foot University Corporate Center I office building at 3501 Quadrangle Blvd. in 2022 for $24.65 million. On Friday, the developer submitted an application to Orange County requesting approval to build a 638-bed student housing project. A site plan indicates that the community would have 169 units, according to a report in GrowthSpotter.

Under the plan, the office building would remain, while the developer would build the 5-story student housing project on the northern half of the existing parking lot. Since the development would be student housing, the average unit size would be larger than a typical multifamily community. There would be 20 one-bedroom, 20 two-bedroom, 82 four-bedroom, 32 five-bedroom, and 15 six-bedroom apartments. The units would range in size from 587 square feet on the low end for a one-bedroom to up to 1,855 square feet for a 6-bedroom unit.

The project would include the construction of a new parking garage with 591 residential parking spaces and 92 parking spaces for the adjacent office building. There would also be a walkway to the back of the property, where there would be a nearly 2,000-square-foot pool and a covered outdoor area surrounded by recreation space.

Representatives from Castle Lanterra were not immediately available for comment. Other companies working on the project include Development Ventures Group (Deven), architecture and design firm Dwell Design Studio, and Kimley-Horn. This wouldn’t be the first time Deven has worked on a student housing project in the Orlando market. The company partnered with Creative Village master developer Ustler Group on the UnionWest student housing tower and plans a second 500-bed tower to serve the shared Downtown Orlando campus of UCF and Valencia College.

The Castle Lanterra property is part of the 473-acre Quadrangle Planned Development (PD). The PD was established in 1984 and consists of over 1.8 million square feet of office space, 1,022 multifamily units, 3,908 student housing beds, 802 hotel rooms, and about 219,000 square feet of retail space.

The project is just one of a handful of off-campus student housing projects planned for the UCF area. Student enrollment at the University stood at 69,320 as of the Fall 2023 semester, a nearly 10,000 increase from 2013, when enrollment was about 60,000. In 2003, enrollment at the university was only 40,000. In 2023, a report from Cushman & Wakefield found that Orlando has more off-campus student housing projects in the works than anywhere else in Florida, with the bulk of that development happening around UCF.

 

The Quadrangle PD by UCF has seen an explosion in planned student housing projects in recent years. In 2022, Tramell Webb Partners submitted an application with Orange County requesting to convert 113,139 square feet of office entitlements on a total of 20.4 acres of vacant land directly west of Lake Ruth into student housing. The company is proposing an additional 896 student housing beds.

Indiana-based Trinitas Ventures began building a 750-bed, 188-unit student housing project nearby at 4742 Data Ct., and is in the final stages of construction on the project. On the southern edge of the PD, American Campus Communities has approved plans for a 250-unit, 898-bed student housing development with 3,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space at 4050 Turbine Dr., across the street from the existing, 364-unit Plaza on University, which American Campus Communities completed in 2014.

Last year, Texas-based developer Brent Little submitted an application for a 605-bed student housing community on land owned by New Life Church of God at 2820 N Alafaya Trl., about a mile south of the UCF campus. About a month later, an application was filed for a property about a block away at 3133 N Alafaya Trl. for 200 student housing units with 626 beds. The property is currently home to a Fairwinds Federal Credit Union location.

A bit south, Progressive Capital Group plans to tear down the Golden Corral at 11731 E Colonial Dr. to build a new, 139-unit, 556-bed student housing project.

Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at (407)607-8160 or TyWilliams@GrowthSpotter.com. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook and LinkedIn.