Glorious: Mazza Grandmarc Begins Leasing for Fall 2010
November 5th, 2009 | by David Daddio | Published in Housing, Mazza Grandmarc | 2 Comments
When I saw it, I could hardly believe my eyes. Seven links down on a basic Google search for “Mazza Granmarc” there it was staring back at me from across cyberspace: the leasing website for the first purely private student housing project to open in College Park in five years. It’ll be the only (private) dedicated graduate student housing project of its kind in the city and one of the few economic development projects College Park was able to capitalize on during the real estate boom. That’s thanks in part to Rethink College Park’s tireless advocacy for it and our productive friendship with the Graduate Student Government. It was a fight that took us from City Hall, to Annapolis, and then on to Upper Marlboro.
No the project isn’t perfect. It’s about a mile and a half from campus and, as we pointed out in June 2007, it includes a whooping 637 parking spaces for a 630 bed (231-unit) complex. The project will have a 8 foot wide pedestrian/bike connection to the Paint Branch Trail to its rear and frequent Shuttle-UM service to campus. There will also be a retail section that will front Route 1, but we are unsure of the timing on that. At $43 million, we still believe Mazza was the right choice. It brings decent, affordable housing to a forgotten segment of UMD’s student population and puts them much closer to the University than they would have been otherwise… and in a transit/bike-friendly complex to boot.
Our guess is that a good bit of the garage will be empty and the bike parking will be inadequate. The latter issue is a problem we’ve noticed next to the University View. We’ll dive more into these two issues in short order.
November 6th, 2009 at 1:00 am (#)
I had an opportunity to tour the partially completed facility in August when Mazza had its topping off party. The apartments are large with 9-foot ceilings and tall windows. A lot of great views of the stream valley and the forest from the apartment windows, too.
Most amazingly (to me, at least), it was financed by AIG, just as the financial situation was going into almost total collapse.
November 6th, 2009 at 11:21 am (#)
So you are saying the building is owned by the Federal Government? :)