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Sunday, April 21, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

City shows benefits of a college town

Developers pleased with students nearby

As the city of San Marcos, Calif., has shown, building a college can make areas bloom with new housing, as well as spur the conversion of neighboring properties to uses better suited to the needs of students.

In 1990, the California State University system broke ground on what was then its newest campus in San Marcos. The city, which had only been incorporated in 1983, had 38,974 residents and was considered a tony, if sleepy, suburb of San Diego.

By 2000, 54,977 people called San Marcos home. Last fall, California State University, San Marcos had 6,497 students.

"Sometimes it's hard to distinguish whether it's the university that's helping us or our location that's helping us, but we are the fastest growing city in San Diego County," said Greg Reuel, the city's economic development coordinator.

Some say students haven't had a major effect on the city's economic health.

"Universities typically do not do a whole lot for commercial development," said Paul Hollings, director of asset management for Pacifica Enterprises in San Marcos. "You've got a population base at the university that typically is not overly employed or overly wealthy."

Reuel said a slew of developers felt otherwise.

"We have a new 16-acre Ralph's (grocery store) and Long's (drug store) shopping center that went in right across the street from the university, and most of the retailers there are relying on the growth in the student population," he said. "We have about 7,000 students now, and build-out is at 30,000, so we're not at capacity yet."

But Reuel and Hollings agree that universities encourage residential construction.

"One thing that (a university) does spur, if you can work out an arrangement with the city, is affordable housing for the students," said Hollings, who added that landlords who aggressively market properties with one to four bedrooms can prosper if they keep one principle in mind.

"You make your money from September to June," he said with a laugh.

Reuel said 400 apartments next to the campus are under construction, as well as 1,000 condominiums.

"This was kind of a unique campus for the Cal State system, as it originally didn't have student housing," he said. "But we're building our first 400 units right now."