A rendering depicts the planned Research Park apartment complex.
Plans for a new housing and retail community located near the College Park Metro Station will provide easy access to public transportation and 3,000 jobs in the university’s Research Park, the University of Maryland announced Thursday.
The complex will house 370 apartments, 5,000 square feet of retail space and 395 parking spaces for recent graduates and professionals to have access to the Research Park, public transit and a college town, according to a university release. The property is located at 4301 River Road.
Eric Olson, the College Park City-University Partnership executive director, said the city and this university had been working on having an apartment complex near transit for years.
“Having housing right at the Metro station — you couldn’t get any more close to transit than that,” he said. “We have all been wanting that and working towards that for a longtime.”
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The project is in a “premature stage,” meaning there is no estimated price or opening date for the complex, said Ronald Paul, the project’s leading developer and a 1978 alumnus. His company, Ronald D. Paul Companies Inc. is funding the project.
This project falls in line with the university’s Greater College Park initiative, which includes a slew of announcements regarding campus developments, public-private research collaborations and downtown projects.
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Part of the larger goal of the initiative is to attract more university employees to the city. This announcement, along with the homeownership program announced this summer, will hopefully work toward accomplishing that goal, Olson said.
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“The vision is to have more university employees living in College Park and that means they will be walking and biking to work and not having to commute in from far away,” he said. “It means they will be contributing to the community and the city’s economy.”
He added: “This really shows there is a lot of interest regionally in College Park. There is a lot happening here, both big and small, that is contributing to College Park becoming a top-20 college town.”
The five-story apartment complex will include a clubhouse, fitness center and cyber cafe, along with a courtyard and pool, according to the announcement.
Ken Ulman, the university’s economic development strategist, said the university recruited a developer and investor to help close the agreement. The university will not be funding any part of the project.
Paul said the combination of faculty housing in a strong market and proximity to the Metro are some of the reasons he agreed to support the development.
“This project moves us toward a more vibrant Greater College Park where work, play, home and transit all connect,” university President Wallace Loh said in a statement. “It offers a mix of amenity-rich apartments, retail and strategic location.”
CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, a previous version of the headline incorrectly stated that the university is building the new housing and retail space near the College Park Metro. The university is not funding the project. The headline has been updated.
