Southern Village to add three new apartment buildings

Three more apartment buildings will be added to Southern Village to increase student housing options, according to Marty Hamilton, senior vice president for Financial Administration. The first building is planned to be ready by fall of 2024 while the second and third are planned to be ready soon after.

Southern Village currently has 10 apartment buildings that hold 32 students per building, according to Hamilton. Each new Southern Village building is expected to cost around $2 million and will hold 32 students.

In addition to the new building, more parking will be added to Southern Village as well, with 13 spots being added this summer. Additional parking is planned for the future, according to Hamilton. 

“I’m working on adding some parking as one of the priorities so that we can take some pressure off of students not finding a place to park,” Hamilton said.

 Hamilton cited the rising cost of rent for off-campus housing as one of the reasons why having more on-campus housing options is important. 

“All the rental rates out here just skyrocketed in the last year. … So, all of a sudden, I think they saw it as more expensive,” Hamilton said. “But, on the positive side, we love to have our students in our campus environment. Hopefully we’re connecting you to friends, programming and activities of one kind or another.”

Developing more student housing is part of Southern Adventist University’s plan to keep up with increasing enrollment, according to Hamilton. Housing pressure is typically highest in fall semesters and drops in winter semesters, so Southern is working to be ready for fall of 2024. 

“We’re doing everything we can to figure out any housing options for our students,” Hamilton said. 

Enrollment was up 100 students last year, and based on administration’s projections, Southern is expecting more growth in the upcoming semesters, Hamilton explained. As the university continues to plan housing for the future, he said that Southern is moving away from building more residence halls.

“We’ve been migrating to doing more apartment-style living for the upperclassmen,” Hamilton said.