The Cobb County (Ga.) planning commission has recommended approval of a 685-bed student housing development near Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Ga.
The Marietta Daily Journal reports that the project is the first student housing development proposed since the County Board of Commissioners approved lifting a moratorium on such housing last year.
"We wanted to be the template for every other (purpose-built student housing) developer coming down the line, and we think we've done that," Garvis Sams, the attorney for Athens-based developer Landmark Properties, told planning commissioners.
The development will cost between $70 million and $75 million, and it will be built, owned and operated by Landmark Properties, an Athens, Ga.,, developer.
Landmark hopes to build and open the complex by fall 2021, according to Development Manager David Phillips.
Approval of the project is up to the Board of Commissioners, which will hear the proposal next week.
Landmark's plans call for 685 bedrooms for students at Kennesaw State University, to be spread across 21 apartment buildings and 13 acres less than a half mile from the university campus.
The gated community would be called the Retreat at Kennesaw and include outdoor recreational areas, study rooms, a 9,000-square-foot clubhouse, 685 parking spaces, a four-story parking deck, surveillance cameras and license plate readers.
The Board of Commissioners' August vote to lift the moratorium also amended the county code to require special permits for developers of student housing. Among the conditions imposed by the permits is the creation of a safety plan.
