Gadsden + Greene, a new off-campus housing development near Colonial Life Arena, is scheduled to open in the fall of 2025.
The USC Development Foundation, which manages the university’s real estate investments, is planning on building the independent housing developmentexclusively for University of South Carolina students. The complex will offer housing to second, third and fourth-year students.
“This is not being built for freshmen, so the university will continue to accommodate all the freshmen that arrive at campus, this will be more for sophomores and above,” Jason Caskey, president and CEO of the USC Development Foundation, said.
USC currently offers limited on-campus housing options for students after their freshman year, causing some students to seek out off-campus housing options, which will soon include Gadsden + Greene.
"Because of its location and proximity to campus, we believe it will be a natual fit, and the desire for students to be in this facility will help with the housing situation," Caskey said.
The projected 3.75-acre property, which is expected to have approximately 938 beds and stand at 11 stories, will be located at 737 Gadsden St., just behind Colonial Life Arena and less than a mile from the Horseshoe.
“The units will be apartment style, so each bedroom will have its own bathroom, and there will be one-bedroom, two-bedroom, three-bedroom and four-bedroom units, with the majority of units in the facility being four bedrooms,” Hunter Lambert, the director of real estate at the USC Development Foundation, said.
Holder Properties, a residential real estate development and investment company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, which guides developments from groundbreaking to property management, was selected to oversee construction.
"We were selected to be the third-party developmer. We are not essentially an investor in the project, we are there to manage the development of the project, meaning bringing the design team and the general contracting team to the table and managing that process for the foundation, and then we're also tasked with leasing the asset for them," Andy Barfield, managing director and head of development at Holder Properties, said.
The development will also have approximately 14,000 square feet in retail space. However, the occupants of this space have not yet been determined.
“We would envision right now, again, we still got some plans to work out, but three actual different spaces. And I would envision at least two of those three being food service-type facilities,” Caskey said.
Construction on Gadsden + Greene is expected to begin in late spring 2023, asthe architectural plans are currently being finalized.
The total cost of those plans is projected to land near $172 million, in part due to the building materials chosen for the project.
“It’s obviously an expensive development, but the nature of the construction is what makes it more expensive than a lot of the other private housing developments. This facility will be built out of concrete and steel," Caskey said.
The facility will also have a variety of amenities, including a pool, fitness center, study rooms and meeting spaces. Residents will have access to a parking deck for their use only while surface-level parking will be included for the retail spaces, with a total of about 600 parking spaces between the two.