By George! College Station moving beyond student housing

COLLEGE STATION – Century Square — a $172 million project — is being developed next to Texas A&M. It is slated to include apartments, two hotels and retail and office space.

Chicago-based Harrison Street Real Estate Capital will provide most of the equity capital in the $172 million project. Harrison’s partner on Century Square, Houston-based Midway Cos., broke ground late last year.

Century Square is different from Harrison’s typical residential projects, because it’s not including conventional student housing. It’s targeting the wide range of businesses, retailers, and others that want to be located near a big campus.

Century Square will include 250 rental apartments that will be marketed for about $1.60 per sf per month, which is at the high end of the rental market in College Station, according to Jonathan Brinsden, chief executive of Midway.

The two hotels will have a total of about 300 rooms. One is named Cavalry Court, a nod to Texas A&M’s rich military tradition; the other is named the George, partly after the large number of prominent graduates with that name and the location of the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum on the campus.

There will also be about 200,000 sf of retail space and 100,000 sf of office space. The whole project will take up just 32 acres of the 60-acre site.

At this point Midway hasn’t decided what to do with the rest of the property but the firm is hoping that the current project, scheduled to be completed in late 2016, will generate additional retail, residential and office demand, Mr. Brinsden said.