Work progressing on student housing development The Mark

Construction has begun in earnest on the downtown area's latest student housing venture - the 1.1 million-square-foot development known as The Mark.

Wes Rogers, CEO of Athens-based Landmark Properties, which is developing the 8.3-acre site, said last week that the mixed-use project - which will encompass some 920 beds, plus nearly 80,000 square feet of office and retail space - is thus far on schedule, with construction set to conclude in the summer of 2016.

Rogers assented that the project, which is being built on the old Armstrong & Dobbs site at Oconee and East Broad streets on the east end of downtown, has met with a challenge much like the developers of the nearby News Building discovered some 25 years ago in that the ground beneath the development features some incredibly durable rock formations.

As a result, there will be some on-site blasting scheduled for later this year.

"There's certainly rock there, but we knew that going into the project," Rogers said. "We did extensive geotechnical reports and surveyed the subterranean rock and we had it all mapped out and designed the building to minimize cutting into the rock. We're going to have to be blasting out there and we're estimating two months - for pretty much March and April we'll be dealing with the rock issues. But we've accounted for that in our budget and our timeline."

He added that due to some underground tanks on the property, some environmental remediation was required. The remediation, under the eye of the Georgia Brownfield Association, was recently finished, allowing for construction to commence on the site, which several years ago was targeted as a possible location for a Walmart.

One of the concerns raised about the new development is an increase in traffic in the vicinity and Rogers said it's likely a new traffic light will be part of the project.

"Based on our traffic study, it looks like we're going to install a traffic light at our Oconee Street entrance, which I think should be helpful to the traffic situation," he said. "But again, traffic lights are the function of a traffic study - you do the study and it tells you whether you need one or you don't. You either need to or you don't need to, and it looks like we're going to need to. That's around $100,000-$200,000 ... but we've budgeted for it and we're assuming we're going to be installing that light."

Besides student apartments, the site is expected to include 1,200 parking spaces in two decks, with some additional surface parking places. It will also feature some 42,000 square feet of office space and close to 32,000 square feet for retail, which Rogers said he's already received letters-of-intent for about a quarter of that space.

Landmark Properties, one of the largest student housing development companies in the country, this summer completed work on The Standard at Athens, a 600-bed student apartment development at Thomas Street and North Avenue and soon after sold the property to Texas-based American Campus Communities.

That scenario is not expected to play out again as Rogers has said that the company will relocate its corporate headquarters from Epps Bridge Parkway to The Mark.

"We don't have an institutional equity partner in this deal, so we set this project up where we can own it and completely control it ourselves," Rogers said. "This is an asset we plan on holding for the long run. This is a building we intend to own for a long period of time."

With Georgia Heights going up nearby and rumors about other locales - most notably the parking lot behind the Bottleworks and the St. Joseph Catholic Church lot at Prince Avenue and Pulaski Street - indicating more student housing may be on its way, Rogers was asked if he felt there would soon be a disturbing glut of student beds in and around downtown.

"There's that potential, but I think we've got good supply and demand balance right now," he said. "In our opinion, there's a lot of demand for students to live in downtown Athens. It's a trend here and nationally.

"There's a real push nationally and here in Athens for students to live in a pedestrian community where they can walk to their classes or to the nightlife or to the football games. You know how desirable it is to live in downtown Athens and there's very little housing stock downtown. ... Beyond that, I do have some concerns. Other developers can see how successful we've been in our project and they may try to emulate that, so there is a risk for overbuilding. We're moving forward cautiously optimistic."