The University of Maryland, College Park has announced a partnership with a Rockville developer to overhaul 38 acres of university-owned property with new student housing and retail space.
After months of negotiations with seven developers, the university announced Thursday it will partner with Foulger-Pratt Companies and Argo Investment Company to redevelop property on the east side of U.S. Route 1.
The agreement marks a step forward in the East Campus redevelopment project, but actual changes on the ground are years off, said James Stirling, the university’s director of procurement and supply.
The university and FP-Argo will likely spend the next four to eight months hammering out differences. The university estimates construction, at the earliest, would not begin until 2010.
“We are quite a long way from breaking ground on the project,” Stirling said.
East Campus holds a collection of student apartments, a parking lot, industrial service shops and several office buildings. Under the agreement, FP-Argo would pay an estimated $500 million to rebuild the site and would lease the buildings constructed there from the university for 70 years, Stirling said.
The current proposal calls for the transformation of the site into a mixed-use development, incorporating apartments and office, retail and dining spaces.
The finished area will be an “urban village” including a plaza and street-facing retail shops that connect the university to the local Metro station, Argo Investment co-founder Richard Perlmutter said.
A community center is exactly what College Park needs, said Emma Simson, president of the Student Government Association at the university.
“Everyone always talks about making College Park more of a college town, and I think this idea is a huge part,” said Simson, who is on the university committee negotiating the future of east campus.
While optimistic about the development project, Simson said the affordability of new housing on east campus concerned her.
