800-bed student housing project progresses at Morehouse, Spelman colleges
A large project promising to house hundreds of students at two of Atlanta’s historically Black colleges has lined up its financing and will soon prepare for construction.
A development group selected by Morehouse and Spelman colleges received approval Tuesday from a Fulton County board to access federal bond financing to build an 800-bed student housing project. The Development Authority of Fulton County approved nearly $144.5 million in federal revenue bonds to help finance the project by Madrone-MS Student Housing I LLC.
Located at 850 West End Ave. SW across from Morehouse’s B.T. Harvey Stadium, the development is designed to address a lack of student housing options near Atlanta’s cluster of HBCUs. Nick Allen, partner and director of Radnor Property Group, will build the project and said Morehouse and Spelman have quickly outgrown their on-campus housing stock.
“The colleges have experienced some pretty exciting enrollment growth, about 25%, over the past five years,” Allen told the DAFC board. “That has amounted to over 1,100 additional students that are heading to (those) campuses every day.”
The LLC helming the project is affiliated with Pennsylvania-based Radnor and California-based Madrone Community Development Foundation, a nonprofit specializing in education and government projects. The property is owned in a joint partnership between Morehouse and Spelman, which selected the development team through a request for proposals.
Both colleges are in the process of building new residence halls, but those fresh beds will replace aging buildings, many of which lack air conditioning. As a result, those new residence halls will not significantly change the net number of student beds on their campuses, which is why Morehouse and Spelman are looking to public-private partnerships to build new housing options.
“Generally speaking, students are paying about $1,300 per month on average,” Allen said of market studies Radnor did on Atlanta’s current student housing rents. “We are targeting rental rates closer to $1,200 per bed per month.”
The 450,000-square-foot building will include 290 rooms in addition to amenities such as a rooftop terrace, fitness center and dedicated study areas. Radnor expects to begin construction this summer and finish the building in fall 2028.
DAFC, also known as Develop Fulton, voted unanimously to approve the bond request, which will not impact local property tax collections.
“By supporting housing that serves Morehouse and Spelman students, Develop Fulton is helping strengthen Atlanta’s higher education ecosystem while advancing economic opportunity, without placing additional burden on taxpayers,” Kwanza Hall, the agency’s chairman, said in a statement.
During Tuesday’s meeting, DAFC also preliminarily approved a $16 million tax break for an Amazon project in the city of South Fulton. It involves the e-commerce giant investing $500 million to convert a warehouse the company vacated in 2024 into a new “first mile” fulfillment center with robotics and 750 workers.
About the Author
Zachary Hansen, a Georgia native, covers economic development and commercial real estate for the AJC. He's been with the newspaper since 2018 and enjoys diving into complex stories that affect people's lives.
