BWE, a national commercial and multifamily mortgage banking company, today announced that it has secured $36,029,500 in acquisition financing for The Monroe, a 796-bed student housing property at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Campus Realty Advisors acquired the asset and were advised by Christopher Carroll and Max Miller in BWE’s Chicago office.
“With students looking for high-quality, amenity-rich places to spend their college careers, it’s critical that student housing options can meet this demand. We’re proud to partner with Campus Realty Advisors to help them acquire and reposition The Monroe so that it can become the premier housing option for Indiana University students in Bloomington,” said Carroll.
Situated at 1150 S Clarizz Boulevard, The Monroe is located in one of the three purpose-built student housing submarkets serving Indiana University. The Monroe is particularly popular with students with classes on the southeast part of campus given its proximity to several of the university’s larger colleges, especially the renowned Jacobs School of Music, the #2 ranked performing arts school in the US.
Indiana University brought in a record freshmen enrollment in 2022, with over 10,200 students starting at the university in the fall. This is up from the record-breaking 9,661 freshman students recorded in 2021. With both undergraduate and graduate enrollment seeing strong growth, the Bloomington purpose-built market has seen leasing velocity 10% higher compared to the previous year, which projects well for the already 96.8% occupied market. After the planned unit renovations, rents for The Monroe will still be high value compared to purpose-built alternatives in the market.
BWE provides flexible financing solutions for clients covering the entire spectrum of commercial and multifamily real estate. For more information on BWE’s services, visit us at: https://www.bwe.com/.
About Campus Realty Advisors
Campus Realty Advisors is an entrepreneurial real estate investment advisory firm focusing on the acquisition, development, and asset management of private student housing near university campuses. The Principals have over 50 years of combined real estate experience and have worked together on student housing opportunities since 2002.
Challenge 1:
The first challenge we faced is the significant new supply coming online at Indiana University. A combination of enrollment growth and older product going offline, either by conversion to market rate apartments or the university closing dorms, has created a supply/demand scenario where there continues to be a need for more student housing that doesn’t exceed students’ budgets. While much of the new student housing in the area have very high rents, The Monroe offers IU students resort-style amenities at a more mid-range price point.
Another challenge we overcame was the belief that The Monroe was too far from campus to be a strong student housing option. However, the reality is that IU has three primary private housing submarkets, each appealing to a different part of campus. Most students living in these areas either take a bus or drive themselves to campus, and The Monroe is well-situated for students attending IU’s prestigious music school. By demonstrating that The Monroe will still give students great access to campus, as well as other amenities like a movie theater, restaurants, and shopping, we proved that it could be one of the premier student housing options for IU students.