How Student Housing is affecting the Businesses in Downtown Athens
By CJ Walker Imagine rolling out of bed, walking out of your front door, and being greeted with a plentiful of restaurants, retail stores, and people; Loads and loads of people. That is what the average student living off campus in downtown Athens, Georgia deals with on an everyday basis. Over the years downtown Athens has been known to be a place of culture that is home to many unique restaurants and boutiques. However that fact is becoming a fallacy. Within the past five years, Athens has seen the rapid growth of student housing in the downtown area. This trend began to occur in the early 90’s when the apartment complexes known as Steeplechase and Waterford were built along Oconee Street which is right on the edge of downtown. Since then, the popularity of living in the downtown area has rose tremendously, which made a demand for more student housing to be built. “I think [building student housing in the downtown area] has always been a trend as long as I’ve been in Athens,” said Leann Florence, manager of Red Dress and Fringe. “People have always wanted to live downtown. It’s like the hub of Athens if you will. It’s where everything happens. As far as everything moving here like condominiums and apartments, over the last couple of years it has really boomed.” Recently Georgia Heights, which is the newest six-story mixed-use student housing community in the downtown area, has opened its doors. This complex holds approximately 300 units. Beyond that, two more student housing, Uncommon and The Mark, are planning to open in the following school year with over 1,500 beds in both. “I feel like for a lot of students, they want to be in a cool, hip, and trendy place,” said Mary-Chelsea Banister, store manager of Empire South. “Just having that exclusiveness of being in the downtown scene is what people want.” The exclusiveness that Banister is talking about is the fact that everything you need is right outside of your doorstep. Clothing stores, restaurants, and even bars are all in an arms length away. With the rapid growth of student housing, many of the business are being affected. Most love the fact that downtown Athens is growing. They say that the growth of student housing is drawing in more business to their stores as well as bringing in more revenue to the city of Athens. “It [student housing] has definitely put more disposable income downtown all hours of the day,” said Pamela Thompson, executive director of the ADDA. “Also, more residential units make us desirable for many different types of businesses that would not consider a place with few downtown residents.” Downtown Athens is now the new hot spot since so many people are moving into the area. Every business owner is trying to move their companies to downtown because they see how profitable it is becoming. Big companies such as J. Crew, Urban Outfitters, and Zaxby’s can now be found in the heart of downtown Athens, Georgia. “I would say student housing has affected business decisions to come downtown and open up downtown,” said Derrick Bahnsen, assistant manager and men’s buyer at Empire South. “Part of the reason J. Crew came is because of Georgia Heights. That’s also part of the reason why we opened right across the street from Georgia Heights.” J. Crew and Urban Outfitters, which are nationally known clothing stores have now moved into the downtown area. Urban Outfitters took the place of an older local business while J. Crew opened in the new retail space under Georgia Heights. Zaxby’s, which is a popular fast-food franchise, has also opened and taken the place of another previous local business. These dramatic changes to the downtown area have really impacted many of the residents of Athens. There is a never-ending argument over whether or not the continuing growth of commercial properties and student housing should persist. “I feel like a lot of people and the older generations don’t want to see change,” said Mary-Chelsea Banister. “They like the way that it’s always been. It is probably frightening for them. Some people like Athens as it is and some want to see it grow and thrive.” With more students moving into the downtown area, comes more businesses. With more businesses, come more people. It is a never-ending cycle. However, the growth of downtown Athens seems to be putting more attention on the city. “More people want to come downtown and visit which brings more foot traffic to those of us that are down here,” Leann Florence said. “It brings people from the outside towns and cities. It even brings people in from Atlanta. I think that has definitely been one of the main reasons it has benefitted.” These types of reactions are showing the market that the demand for more student housing is imperative and does not need to stop anytime soon. The opposing viewpoint of this issue is saying that having so many students live downtown makes it inaccessible to different types of people such as adults, families, and young professionals. Athens, Georgia is known to have the most bars per capita in the entire country and they are all located in the downtown area. There are over 80 bars in the city, all walking distance to campus. Most, if not all, cater to students. Building more and more student housing in the downtown area allows students easy access to these bars. Living downtown makes it easy for students to just get drunk and stumble home. And a lot of people do not appreciate this, finding it to be a huge negative aspect of the rapid growth of student housing. “There’s sort of a belligerency that is coming with the amount of students heading downtown,” said Derrick Bahnsen. “Athens is known for it’s bar scene at night so I wonder if that sort of adds to [the negativity] and if it’s pushing it over the edge. Student housing downtown may really be affecting Athens in the way that it’s just becoming a bar town as opposed to showing some of these unique restaurants or some of these unique retail stores.” Pamela Thompson adds to this saying that she personally feels as if the city is starting to only cater to the students and not give any thought into what other people may feel. “I want there to be a diversity of house opportunities for all that want to call downtown home. I do think we need to move toward a better blend,” she said. There are always two sides to every story and with such a controversial topic like the rapid growth of student housing in the downtown area, there will always be an argument for and against it. There are many positives to this topic such as the inflation of business as well as the inflation of money going into the city. There are also many negatives such as the closing of local businesses to make room for the student housing as well as the overwhelming number of students in the area, making a select group of people uncomfortable. However, neither here nor there, it does not seem like this trend is stopping any time soon. “I feel like it is a never-ending argument between people,” said Mary-Chelsea Banister. “Many people love having big names that they can recognize pop up in the area, but there are those people who don’t want to see that. They want it [Athens] to stay at a steady pace.” Athens is not the only city that is going through this change. Many college towns are deciding to focus their attention to the students because that is where most of the city’s revenue is coming from and I think people are just going to have to get used to that fact.
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December 2016
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