College Park officials on Nov. 18 pressed a Chicago-based student housing developer to include affordable units in a mixed-use building planned for Guilford Drive.
Article Student Living, which builds and manages student apartments nationwide, outlined its proposal for a 192-unit complex at 4201 Guilford Drive that will include a new 17,000-square-foot church to replace the one that will be torn down during construction.
“The church is not going anywhere,” Carly Zapernick, Article’s managing director of construction and development, said of Hope Lutheran Church, which has been on the site for 70 years. “They are in an aging building now, so of course they’re very excited to partner with us.”
Pastor Julie Bringman said the new space will be larger than the old church, fully accessible, and might have room for offices or affordable housing units that the church would manage for students and “refugees getting on their feet in a new country.”
The project would replace the Hope Lutheran Church and Student Center with a five-story, 295,000-square-foot apartment complex with 419 bedrooms and 200 parking spaces, designed primarily for University of Maryland (UMD) students.
The building would match the height of Terrapin Row, a nearby six-story student apartment complex on Guilford Drive, but would step down to three stories along Hunter Lane, which borders single-family homes.
Chris Hatcher, an attorney representing Article, said the structure would sit roughly 133 to 150 feet from neighboring houses.
Zapernick said Article builds and keeps its properties for the long term, noting the company operates more than 22,000 beds across 35 university markets.
“We aren’t in the business of, you know, coming and building and then moving on. We tend to hold for the long term,” she said. “Occupancy levels of our apartments across the country are very, very strong today — around 95% plus — which is very healthy.”
At the Nov. 18 council meeting, nearly every councilmember raised affordability concerns, saying that several recent student developments have failed to produce units students can reasonably afford.
Mayor Fazlul Kabir encouraged Article to use the city’s tax incentive program. “The catch is that you must have affordable housing in it,” Kabir said.
“Students have mentioned multiple times that the rates per bed of these apartments are outrageously high,” then-Councilmember Llatetra Brown Esters (District 2), who did not run for re-election in November, said.
Councilmember Denise Mitchell (District 4) pressed the developer to recognize the city’s goal to bring more affordable housing to College Park.
“We have a vision moving forward, and we’re not going to negate that vision,” she said, adding, “We want to ensure that all partners who come to the table understand our strategic goals clearly.”
Nick DiSpirito, UMD’s student liaison to the council, also urged the developer to include affordable units. Some students, he said, need “a full-time job when their main focus should be trying to get an education.”
Hatcher did not commit to providing units at below-market rates but acknowledged the city’s expectations. “We definitely hear the theme from the city. … It’s so early in the process, and we’re trying to figure it out with time,” he said.
Hatcher said the developer will submit formal documents in the first quarter of 2026.
The developer has scheduled a neighborhood meeting, open to the public, for Dec. 17 at the church.