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Route 1 to get another student apartment building

Posted on: October 11, 2024

By SAM GAUNTT

A privately-owned student apartment building will open at the site of the demolished Town Hall Liquors in fall 2017. Shown, an artist’s rendering of the building.
Courtesy of LV Collective

A Texas-based development company is planning to build a mixed-use housing complex at the site of the former Campus Village Shoppes, a recently-demolished strip of restaurants and small businesses.  

The development, referred to by city planners as Project Turtle, will add a privately-owned student housing option to the current selection of apartments along Route 1 in College Park. The project is expected to open in fall 2027.

The seven-story building will consist of 299 units – or about 1,000 beds. It will also contain approximately 13,000 square feet of retail space on its ground floor, and will house the Lakeland Legacy Center, a planned 2,000-square-foot community space for residents of the city’s Lakeland neighborhood, a historically Black community. 

“With each development, we look for creative ways to collaborate with the community, embracing its history and honoring its character and culture,” Andreé Sahakian, a senior development manager at LV Collective, the developer, said in a statement. “We have worked closely with the city of College Park and the Lakeland community to create this development that will bring value and vibrancy to this neighborhood and honor its identity.” 

The Lakeland Legacy Center will contain a large open space for presentations or events, a catering kitchen, a library and an archival room, Sahakian said during a June 3 College Park City Council meeting. 

But the project faced some community backlash last year after LV Collective, the owner of the former strip mall, sent 60-day closure notices to the tenants of the former Campus Village Shoppes. 

Some of those businesses have been invited to return to the space once the building is finished, while others have moved to different locations, College Park Here & Now previously reported. 

The affected businesses included several community favorites, such as Taqueria Habanero, which now operates a food truck in College Park, Hanami Japanese and Town Hall Liquors – a popular bar and liquor store that had operated in the city since 1949. 

City Councilmember Susan Whitney (District 2) told College Park Here & Now in August the closure of the Campus Village Shoppes “really hit the city hard.”

“We’re really, really trying to keep a lot of those beloved businesses here,” Whitney said. “And we are having, I think, some pretty good success in doing that.”

The planned building will also contain a coffee shop, owned and operated by LV Collective, on its ground level, and a “co-working mezzanine” on its second floor, the company said in a  statement. 

The development will also include a 286-space parking garage for residents of the building. 

Construction costs for the project are estimated at about $124 million, according to a presentation prepared by the city’s Department of Planning & Community Development in June. 

During the city council meeting on June 3, Sahakian said the project will include two courtyards, with one containing a walking path and seating areas, and the other having a heated pool, grilling stations and grassy areas. 

Maxine Gross, the founding chairwoman of the Lakeland Community Heritage Project, said during the meeting that LV Collective has been “really open” to the thoughts of the community in the creation of the Lakeland Legacy Center. But, Gross said, she was concerned the city lacked a plan ensuring new housing developments include an adequate amount of affordable units. 

She said previous housing developments in Lakeland have prioritized the needs of students, rather than the year-round residents. 

“I think it’s time to kind of turn that thing around and make the ship work for the whole community, not just one portion,” Gross said. 

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