Lots of One Bedroom Apartments Coming to Downtown Decatur
Decatur Metro | March 24, 2015 | 9:10 amA recent post on the AJC reported that the three ongoing apartment developments in downtown Decatur (315 West Ponce, Trinity Triangle and Paces Clairemont) would add a total of 600 units to the city.
While 600 new residences in such a short amount of time is certainly interesting – and worth discussion – what’s even more interesting is the bedroom breakdown. (I realize that sort of sounds like a some kind of illicit activity)
Of the 600 apartments being constructed, 70% of them are 1 bedroom. Of the remaining, 29% are 2 bedroom and just 1% are three bedroom.
We followed up with Assistant City Manager Lyn Menne regarding the reason why a city with such a self-destructive appeal for families is building so many 1 bedrooms. She replied…
It’s all about market and pricing but we were also encouraging developers away from larger units for fear of impact on schools. However, the real driver was market.
The market driver explanation is interesting, since the limited case study of the Place on Ponce has shown that there is currently greater demand for 2 bedroom apartments than 1 bedrooms in the current market. (Though as of yesterday, it sounds like all the 1 bedrooms have also leased)
But perhaps that’s a short-sighted view and the real goal of the developers is to cater to the underserved market of young singles and retirees who currently have few options inside the city limits. Regardless, the overwhelming majority of 1 and 2 bedroom apartments is certainly good news for the city’s school system, which is struggling to keep up with rising enrollment.