It’s happened to so many of us; you sign a lease at an unfinished apartment building with a reassuring real estate agent that promises everything will be fine before the semester begins, and suddenly it’s Drop/Add Week and your once-promising apartment still doesn’t have faucets or paint on its walls.
“For the entire Fall semester of 2014, I had to live in the Holiday Inn above Piesanos Stone Fired Pizza while waiting for my lease to finish construction,” Jordan Marcus, a 21-year-old student, said of a complex that was just recently completed.
While this is an example of a worst-case scenario, it has been a reality for many students facing the uncertainty of signing with an unfinished complex.
Via: Holiday Inn Gainesville
However, contrary to the belief of worried University of Florida students, the new apartment complex Social 28 is on track to open its doors to tenants on its originally planned completion date, August 14, 2015.
The off-campus apartment building, developed by CA Ventures of Chicago, is being marketed to renters for its lifestyle which features a rooftop pool.
“We’re bringing students a resort-style living experience that they can’t get at any other complex in Gainesville,” Larina Hintze, general manager of the Social 28 sales office, said.
Bringing a complex that promises a swanky view and nicer-than-your-average Formica countertops to the area in a short time frame is no easy feat, though.
An unwritten rule in the construction industry states that most projects take double the amount of time first estimated by general managers, something to which a few UF students can attest.
Via: Apartment Guide
But CA Ventures has a good reputation when it comes to building college communities. It has turned out college community complexes quickly with holdings at University of Illinois, Florida State University, University of Maryland, Purdue University, University of Arizona and University of Oregon.
CA Venture’s past knowledge with building student living in Division I college towns is the reason that there is hope for a successful and timely completion of Social 28.
To finish on schedule, Social 28 is using 300 workers and two different developers onsite every day of the week. CMFL, Inc. of Wellington, FL and the national Beal Derkenne Construction are the two teams CA Ventures has tasked with the completion of this project on time.
“The guys work overtime, all the time,” general manager Hintze said when asked how many hours per day the workers were laboring, “We give them whatever hours that we are allowed to.”
Via: Swamp Rentals
After surveying the construction site, it is clear that the architecture will deliver views more akin to something befitting New York City, with balcony walkways and a rooftop pool.
“We work 10 hours every Monday to Friday, and 8 hours on Saturdays and Sundays,” an onsite worker said, “but the apartments are going to look great.”
Gainesville apartments that are swanky and will be finished by the time classes start? All right, Social 28, where do I sign?
Feature photo courtesy of: Live at Social 28
