UF alumni are shelling out big bucks to spend football game weekends in Gainesville - and their checks aren't going to local hotels.
More and more alumni are buying upscale condos within walking distance of UF's campus, and developers are happy to keep up with the demand.
"This provides a unique opportunity for some of the more affluent Bull Gators and alumni to basically come back and enjoy the environment in a first-class, first-rate condominium development," said Henry Rabell, a University Corners sales representative.
Construction of the University Corners condos, at the corner of West University Avenue and 13th Street, is set to begin this Spring.
Condos will range from the high $400,000s to about $800,000, but Rabell said University Corners also offers an option for the more economic buyer: the condo-hotel.
With the condo-hotel, the owner signs a contract with a hotel management company, which rents out the condo and splits the profit with the owner. Condo-hotels range from the low $200,000s to about $400,000 for larger units, Rabell said.
"It enables that Gator who is in town maybe six to 12 days out of the year to own a condo, yet have some sort of a cash flow so they're not just paying for a condo to stay empty," Rabell said.
Aside from weekenders, UF parents are also investing hundreds of thousands of dollars to secure lavish homes for their students.
A quarter of buyers at the year-old St. Charles condominiums were alumni buying for their kids, said Eric Wild, the community's sales representative and property manager.
A two-bedroom condo at St. Charles costs $200,000, while a two-bedroom condo at its ritzier sister condo development, Jackson Square, will cost $300,000. It draws an affluent clientele.
"They're not used to buying the Wal-Mart version of everything," Wild said. "It's the same reason they buy a BMW instead of a Toyota - it's just the little niceties that make it better for them."
The little niceties include 10-foot ceilings, granite countertops, steel kitchen appliances, ceramic floor tiles and French doors.
Jackson Square will sit three blocks north of campus, and construction is due to be finished by May 2007.
