University Developments has announced that its 20-story student housing tower University Bridge Residences, adjacent to Florida International University (FIU), will now be rentals instead of sold as a condominium as originally planned.  
 
A strong rental market for student housing combined with recent changes in United States tax legislation made retaining the unique asset incredibly compelling. University Developments has been processing its building permits since the fourth quarter of 2017 and expects to be able to break ground this spring. Delivery of the building is on its original schedule, anticipated in time for the 2020-21 academic year.
 
“Despite very impressive sales in an overall difficult condominium market, we have made the decision to retain this asset instead of selling it off to individual buyers,” said Brian Pearl, Principal of University Developments. “Cervera Real Estate, our exclusive broker, has done an amazing job, realizing more than 150 unit sales in the past six months. We were certainly on track on our projections, however, the option of retaining the asset is clearly the better scenario for us in the long-run.”
 
“We understand that developers have to make the best financial decisions available to them,” said Alicia Cervera Lamadrid, Managing Partner and Principal of Cervera Real Estate. “While we are disappointed that the units will not be sold as condominiums, especially with the tremendous response that we saw from both buyers and brokers, we are glad to see the project still going ahead and filling the obvious need in the marketplace for student housing. I am very proud of our sales team and thankful to the visionary brokers who have proven the viability of this concept here in our growing city. We are actively working to find alternative opportunities for their buyers given the change in the project’s status.”
 
“We have had a highly productive experience with Cervera and plan to work with them again and again,” concludes Pearl. “It is a rare opportunity where an asset is viable as both a sale and a rental, but the opportunity to retain the asset was the deciding factor.”

University Bridge Residences is being developed by University Developments, a partnership between Miami-based Global City Development, Toronto-based Reichmann International and Toronto-based Podium Developments. University Bridge Residences is bing designed by architecture and interior design firm Arquitectonica and will rise 20 stories and offering 492-units. 

Check out the renderings of the Arquitectonica-designed tower

Photos via University Bridge Residences