Fountain Residential Partners plans to complete The Vue, an all-inclusive housing complex for students, by Fall 2014. The apartments will include furniture, a 50-inch flat screen television and a queen-size bed. | Courtesy of Fountain Residential Partners
As the campus welcomes Cougar Place and Cougar Village II in the coming year, students will have yet another housing option to follow in Fall 2014.
Fountain Residential Partners, a Dallas-based company that has completed more than $1 billion in student housing construction across the country, is building The Vue on MacGregor, a five-story building with nearly 350 beds, that will be located at Calhoun Road and South MacGregor Way across from Bayou Oaks.
It will be the first privately owned off-campus community at UH, and as such, will differ from other housing options in that the University owns the land and leases it to a campus housing firm, the company told the Houston Chronicle.
Although the University won’t have direct control of the apartment property, the new complex will still help UH reach its Tier One potential of housing 25 percent of the students on campus.
“I’m excited because I think that the new complex will give students an opportunity for affordable living near campus, as well as a different style of living,” said nutrition junior Breanna Larsen, executive vice president of the Residence Hall Association.
“Students can form networks and bonds from their school experiences but also feel like they are out in the real world, living on their own and doing something for themselves.”
According to a Houston Chronicle blog post, Fountain Residential Partners has had its eye on the site for five or six years and believes the timing is right to expand in Houston.
“It shows up on the national radar,” said Brent Little, president of Fountain Residential Partners, in the post. “It’s a 41,000-student Tier One research institution. You look at the amount of new construction, the athletics, the education — all of it is hitting the national radar.”
Although pricing has not been set, students will lease by the bedroom and share common spaces, similar to Cougar Place. Rent will include furnishings, high-speed internet, flat-screen televisions and queen-size mattresses.
Many students are looking forward to this all-inclusive housing option that, while not directly tied to the University, benefits UH in many ways.
“I love the idea. The expansion of housing means that we are moving away from being a commuter campus,” said economics sophomore Marcela Arevalo.
“Our school is expanding and becoming bigger and better. Coogs are taking over, and we are turning Houston red.”
Fountain Residential Partners plans to complete The Vue, an all-inclusive housing complex for students, by Fall 2014. The apartments will include furniture, a 50-inch flat screen television and a queen-size bed. | Courtesy of Fountain Residential Partners
