Construction on University Town Center, a Hyattsville housing development aimed at students, should be finished by July 2006, Vice President for Leasing Tim Taylor said.
A 910-bed apartment building will be in the center of the development, which will include a 14-screen Loews movie theater and a Safeway. The buildings are about two miles from the campus off of Adelphi Road.
Negotiations for fall 2006 leases will begin this fall, Taylor said. The rental rates have not been established, but Taylor said they would be competitive with other housing prices in the region.
The building will have a 1,150-space underground parking garage, though not all spaces will be for its residents. A free-standing 1,550-space parking garage is already complete.
Developers slate a 110-unit condominium to open late in 2006, with another 390 units coming in another condominium building in 2007.
The theater, for which the final paperwork was recently signed, will have stadium seating for 3,300 people and all the available “bells and whistles,” Taylor said. It will be the closest off-campus theater once it is completed.
Shuttle-UM may have a stop at the complex, but the plan has not been finalized, said Cynthia Trombly, assistant director of the university’s Department of Transportation Services.
The apartment building will offer mostly four-bedroom, four-bathroom units with a few two-bedroom units. Its amenities, which Taylor said were selected to attract students, will include a pool, a tanning booth, a computer lab, a game room, a gym, a 24-hour concierge service and a hot tub or Jacuzzi.
The 1.4 million-square-foot office space already on the University Town Center site will remain once construction is completed.
Herschel Blumberg, who had owned the land since 1955, started the redevelopment process in 1995. The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission had rezoned the area to encourage high-density urban development around newly-completed Prince George’s Plaza Metro station, which is across from the complex on East-West Highway.
