[DetroitMan]

SCAD master plan approved for new 220-unit student housing complex

SCAD’s master plan for 703 Louisville Road features 220 units across two buildings: one six-story building and one seven-story building. The complex will have capacity for 800 residents. It will likely operate at around 700, said Brad Grant, SCAD’s senior vice president of development, at a July 25 special-called session on the plan. The Louisville Road lot It is also known as the Gateway Property. It abuts the Springfield Canal, which will require updates.

SCAD took over the lot after previous developer WEDP-Fund I, LLC seemingly abandoned it. SCAD issued a statement saying that “the amended SCAD master plan further reduces the footprint of the new structures and increases greenspace compared to the previously approved plan. As part of our commitment to the surrounding community, SCAD will invest an estimated $3.2 million to fully remediate historical environmental issues on the site.” The 1929 Seaboard Freight Station terminal on the site faced demolition when prior private proposals sought to replace with with apartment buildings. The city condemned the building earlier this year. SCAD, however, has proposed to preserve the headhouse and leave it in its current location.

At the Sept. 12 meeting, MPC staff recommended approval of the plan because the new development will sit between existing SCAD residential facilities at The Hive and Boundary Village. “We view this project as a vast improvement to what could be built currently by right,” said Josh Yellin, a lawyer representing SCAD at the meeting. “We agree with staff both in the prior recommendation and today, that this general development plan should be approved.”

https://www.savannahnow.com/story/ne...l/70858269007/