Students are flocking in droves from downtown East Lansing to the northern city limits to settle in two new apartment complexes.
Melrose Apartments, 16789 Chandler Road and the Village at Chandler Crossings, 3839 Hunsaker Street, will be the beneficiaries of students seeking a bargain. City officials are not encouraging the displacement of the student body, but they also are not objecting - yet.
Director of Planning and Community Development Jim van Ravensway said the future of downtown businesses and rental properties is up in the air.
“Everybody has to believe that’ll have an impact on business down here,” van Ravensway said. “It’ll probably take a couple of years to asses the impact.”
A Capital Area Transportation Authority bus line, connecting the two new complexes to campus, reduced the 3-mile driving inconvenience, van Ravensway said.
Melrose resident and human biology senior Brent Zak said having a bus route to campus was a perk to moving into the building. Zak said the main reason for moving was because he was looking for a new apartment and did not sign renew the lease on his East Lansing home quickly enough.
But Zak already is using the complex’s weight room and plans on using other amenities as well.
“Melrose had the most stuff for the best price,” Zak said. “All of the perks for coming here are beautiful. I love it.”
Zak also has lived in Capstone Commons, 2501 Abbott Road. He said he did not believe any apartments could be nicer than Capstone and he was blown away by the swimming pool, basketball courts and club house at Melrose.
Melrose leasing coordinator Heather Beagle said all of the apartments have residents with 1,000 students will be living in Melrose this fall. Many of those students, like Zak, signed a lease because they were looking for a good deal and a lot of perks.
“I think it’s all of our great amenities, 80 percent of the apartments are furnished. We have parties every month, we have DJs by the pool and (we have) basketball tournaments,” he said.
Beagle said students also are heading north because of a lack of rental space close to MSU.
Landlord Fred Bauries operates three homes in East Lansing and thinks the city can handle new apartment complexes.
“I think there’s clearly a market for both,” Bauries said. “Living in a house, you have windows on all four sides, a front yard and parking at you door.”
Bauries said students also get a chance to live closer to campus in a house and having to find a bus to campus is not an issue. But both Bauries and van Ravensway said the rental market will lead to better living conditions and cheaper prices for students.
“I suspect we’ll see some sprucing up of properties,” Bauries said.
Housing all comes down to location, van Ravensway said.
“Any location near campus is better,” van Ravensway said. “If you can, you want to live as close to campus as possible.”
But the future of some city apartments could still be shaky because they are far enough away from main roads going to campus to where transportation is a problem, but close enough to where there is no space for amenities like swimming pools.
“What may be problematic would be these businesses in the middle,” he said.
