VCU and VCU Housing
Virginia Commonwealth University is the largest university in Virginia and ranks among the top universities in the country in sponsored research. Located on two downtown campuses in Richmond, VCU enrolls more than 32,000 students in 208 certificate and degree programs in the arts, sciences and humanities. Sixty-five of the programs are unique in Virginia, many of them crossing the disciplines of VCU’s 15 schools and one college. MCV Hospitals and the health sciences schools of Virginia Commonwealth University compose the VCU Medical Center, one of the nation’s leading academic medical centers.
One interesting fact about VCU – by charter, it is one of the two universities in the State that has an unlimited enrollment. This means that VCU is allowed to enroll as many students as it feels that it can educate.
In the last several years, VCU has dramatically increased its real estate footprint from an academic standpoint with the new School of Engineering, The Brand Center, and new School of Business. During that time, VCU has built only enough on-campus housing to support 20-25% of the additional students. It has basically left it up to the private sector to provide the options for VCU housing. The private sector has responded with many options in terms of apartments, condos and townhomes all located mere blocks from VCU’s Monroe Park campus. Projects in The Fan, Oregon Hill, Jackson Ward, Carver and Manchester all provide close proximity, various styles, prices and sizes, with different features to satisfy all of the needs of the complex VCU housing market.
The VCU condo market has probably taken off more dramatically than any other segment of Richmond real estate with the rapid expansion of the educational component of the VCU expansion. Projects such as the Iron House Place condos, the Eagle Mill Tower condos, the Mews at Cary Mill and Cary Flats projects and the highly successful Tribeca Brownstones, have all been excellent additions to the VCU housing and VCU condo market.
Viewed as a commuter school with limited housing options for much of its history, VCU now boasts numerous options for housing that offer ownership and may provide a better financial option over time. The combination of low interest rates and recession-based pricing levels means that it is truly an amazing time to find a VCU condo or townhome located close to campus to provide a stable housing environment during the student’s stay.
