College enrollment of full-time students increased by 45% from 1999–2009, and projected enrollment in fall 2010 showed 20.6 million students, more than in any previous year. New enrollment records are expected to occur each year through 2019. In addition, rents for student housing have been rising at a higher rate than for conventional apartments, according to the National Multi-Housing Council.
As more and more students matriculate, colleges and universities understand that developing new facilities gives them an edge, whether they are providing new amenities in housing for students and faculty, student centers, or athletic and cultural facilities. Nixon Peabody’s Student Housing practice is dedicated to representing institutions in connection with the development and financing of new, state-of-the-art student housing facilities, as well as the ownership and management of existing housing.
We address the complete legal needs of the student housing industry through an inter-disciplinary team of leading attorneys in the fields of real estate, public and conventional financing, tax, not-for-profit corporate, design and construction, and land use. Our Tax Credit Finance and Syndication group is among the nation’s leading practitioners in New Markets Tax Credits and historic rehabilitations, as well as renewable energy/solar tax credits—all of which have been utilized by educational institutions to leverage their financing. Our lawyers keep abreast of the evolving marketplace and regulatory issues of this challenging field, and are adept at staying in front of many of the latest trends affecting the student housing industry, including the mainstreaming of “green” student housing.
Our clients are colleges and universities, as well as local, regional, and national developers, investors, underwriters, credit enhancement providers, and bond issuers. Having served higher education clients for more than a century, we have extensive experience representing a broad spectrum of institutions, including internationally renowned research universities, medical schools, and schools of the performing and visual arts. We currently have strong relationships with more than 140 institutions around the globe, including some of the most well-known in the U.S.