Orchard Trails sets new tone for student housing

 August 31, 2006
 

The recent opening of Orchard Trails college park in Orono has left some wondering what the effect will be on the area’s more traditional student housing. According to Jim Goodson, area manager for College Park Communities, the 144-unit housing park is currently at 89 percent capacity and should reach 91 percent by the start of classes next week.

                “I think that when we first started out there were some environmental concerns and some concerns about the student housing market,” Goodson said. “But I believe that what we’ve done is set a new standard for the market.”

            The “new standard” being set by the recently opened complex includes, among its more visible amenities, washers and dryers in every unit, fully equipped “modern” kitchens and internet access. Each unit is fully furnished with wall-to-wall carpeting and mini-blinds. Students lease their own private bedroom for $499 a month and share the rest of the unit’s living space with three roommates. The lease also gives them unlimited access to an on-site “clubhouse”, which offers a communal kitchen, a TV and game room, a state-of-the-art fitness center, a computer lab and a tanning bed.

            “Usually what happens is, initially, one student leases a room, and then that student brings in the roommates he or she wants,” Goodson said. “We don’t assemble co-ed units. But if the students want roommates that are of a different gender, then they just have to sign a co-ed agreement.”

            Goodson sees Orchard Trails as merely the latest in a long succession of successful college park communities that CPC has established all across the country. Similar parks have been built to provide student housing for Max’s College in Boston, Penn State, the University of San Diego, the University of Alabama, the University of Texas, and Oklahoma. Each park is located close to the college or university for which it provides housing. In fact, Goodson says, the company’s decision to open a park in Orono was directly related to the site’s proximity to the university.

            “If the site was farther down the road, it wouldn’t have worked,” he said.

            He says that the insular quality of the park is a draw for some parents, who like the idea that their son or daughter will be in a fairly secluded place while still being close to campus. The police make regular checks of the property, he adds, and there are “C.A.s” who perform the same function that “R.A.s (residential assistants)” perform on campus.

            “We’re not going to send anyone around to check to see if there are laws being broken inside the units,” he said, “but if there are any disturbance or noise complaints, they will be addressed. Laws are laws. We have zero tolerance for any breaking of the law. And the police have told us that there is nothing too small for us to call them about.”

            Chad Bradbury, of local rental company KC Management, says that the opening of Orchard Trails has already had an impact on his company’s business.

            “There’s been a decrease in the phone calls we’ve had for rents,” he said. “There’s no call at all for four or five bedroom houses. I have two empty houses right now, where last year at this time, I didn’t have any. But there are a lot of calls for one and two bedroom houses.”

Still, Bradbury says, he doesn’t think that the advent of Orchard Trails is necessarily a bad thing for other landlords who rent to students.

“It might hurt us a little,” he said. “When the Washburn Place was built, we (landlords) went through the same thing. But we rebounded. If anything, it might force us to take a little extra care with our apartments, look after them a little bit more.”

Ruth Vaughn of the Orono Code Enforcement Office says that the office receives regular phone calls from parents of university students who are concerned about their children’s off-campus living conditions.

“They call up and want to know what kind of place their son or daughter is living in,” she said. “Sometimes they’re upset because they don’t feel that a landlord is taking care of a place properly. They’ll call us and want to know what they can do about the situation.”

Vaughn says that she is reserving judgement on what impact Orchard Trails will ultimately have on the area’s student housing market. But, so far, there doesn’t seem to be any decrease in the number of students who have opted to go the traditional route and move into an on-campus dorm. Robert Dana, Dean of Students at the University of Maine, says that there are just as many students in the dorms now as there were at the same time last year. He also believes that there are benefits to choosing dorm residency over off-campus housing.

            “College life is very complicated,” he said. “That’s the reason that I strongly recommend that first year students live on campus. It gives them a structure that they might not otherwise have. It also gives them the extra support, guidance and mentoring which are essential that first year.”