Take a drive north on Abbott Road.
In about 10 minutes, you will arrive at the Chandler Crossings apartments, home to gated communities that provide hotel-like living experiences for students.
Take a look around.
The land, once an open, airplane landing strip, has become a mini-campus where about 3,330 students live and play and spend about $18 million a year on rent alone.
There's a 50-seat movie theater, indoor tennis courts, sand volleyball and even a golf simulator. A strip mall sits in between complexes with the conveniences of a downtown.
Each resident has their own bedroom and possibly their own bathroom, and they don't fight for parking spots.
"You could stay up here all week long, and you'd only have to leave for classes," said Pat Hoban, advertising senior, while playing basketball near one of the clubhouses.
The Village, The Club and The Landings at Chandler Crossings and Crossing Place Apartments aren't in Ingham County - but they have had a noticeable effect on the rental market for MSU students and landlords in East Lansing.
The apartments have created a competitive atmosphere where students can choose between location and amenities.
Occupancy at Cedar Village Apartments near campus is 100 percent, while those in the Chandler Crossings apartments are between 70 and 90 percent.
Rent, however, is more expensive close to MSU. A one bedroom apartment at Cedar Village runs about $660 a month, and Chandler Crossings complexes charge about $450 per month for individual residents to have their own bathroom and bedroom within the four-bedroom units, with tanning and swimming included.
East Lansing officials, who said they didn't want the northern buildings to be constructed in the first place, continue searching for ways to attract students back to the hometown of MSU with their own amenities.
But some question how they will be successful in providing what many students want in a city that doesn't have much land left.
Sprucing up the place
The MSU student renting situation isn't unique; it is actually the result of a lifestyle change in what students today have grown up with and desire.
At Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, students abandoned the city in recent years for feature-packed apartments in the surrounding townships. They left behind an estimated 25 percent vacancy rate for rentals in Mt. Pleasant.
The houses, some of which were built in the 1920s and '30s, weren't made to hold eight people and the number of cars and consumer appliances students use today, said Tony Kulick, Mt. Pleasant's director of planning and community development.
The city's solution is to transform empty houses in the city back into the single-family homes of the past.
But officials in both Mt. Pleasant and East Lansing said the competition created by new apartment complexes also can be advantageous for a community. It creates good deals for students and puts pressure on landlords to spice up their properties, raising the bar for the rental market.
Matt Hagan, who manages more than 100 properties in East Lansing as an agent with Hagan Reality Inc., said he has noticed other landlords putting extra effort into their properties because of the addition of the northern rentals.
Gordy Hunsaker, chief executive officer of Atlantis Development Group, which owns all the northern properties except Crossing Place and Capstone Commons, said the way the area panned out is exactly what East Lansing wanted.
"This whole Northern Tier has accomplished what the residents of East Lansing wanted to do, which was to get students out of the neighborhoods," he said. "Students aren't being ticketed and fined for being students."
But East Lansing officials said one of the most common misconceptions is that the city approved the building of the large complexes.
"The perception that the city is actively engaged in moving the students out is absurd," said Kevin Beard, former chairman of the East Lansing Planning Commission. "That wasn't our strategy.
"That was Bath and DeWitt sucking the students out of the city of East Lansing."
Bath Township Superintendent Mark Ritter did not return repeated phone calls as of Monday night.
Although the portion containing The Landings apartments is now controlled by East Lansing through a land agreement, the rest of the properties were approved by Bath Township and are under its jurisdiction. Capstone Commons is also in East Lansing.
"You look at the map now, and you've got the most ziggy zaggy, gerrymandered borders up there," Beard said.
Bringing 'em back
Most agree the future for the Chandler Crossings apartments is unclear and will be determined by a number of factors, including how well the properties are managed and what future renters crave.
But East Lansing plans to attract the students back to the city with projects that would provide similar housing amenities with close proximity to classes.
"We've always felt that those units up there are going to be very vulnerable to future tenants," said Jim van Ravensway, East Lansing planning and community development director. "If you're a student at MSU, you want to be in the downtown because that's where everyone goes."
There are a few developments in the planning stages that would offer a mix of new housing.
The East Village, which would replace the Cedar Village area, is expected to house some students. A second project similar to Campus Village, a four-bedroom, four-bathroom setup, is also in the works, East Lansing City Manager Ted Staton said. Campus Village is located near the Brody Complex on Michigan Avenue.
But unless the city can wipe out acres of existing buildings, landlords like Hunsaker see no merit in the plans the city has developed.
"There's just no place in East Lansing you could build these types of projects," Hunsaker said. "This has become the area students want to live."
In any case, the city is still learning how to incorporate the alternative housing options into the rental playing field.
"We would not have planned the use of the land in the same way," Staton said. "(But) they are there - we can't wish them away."
