P&Z board approves new 300-bed Rollins dorm
The proposal to increase an existing dormitory from 80 to 300 beds comes as the college is also seeking approvals for a faculty and staff apartment building
Dec. 7, 2023
By Beth Kassab
The Planning & Zoning Board this week green-lighted a new student housing project on the Rollins College campus, which would increase the existing Holt Hall from 80 to 300 beds.
The project at 1000 Holt Avenue next to the Tennis Center was unanimously approved by the board and plans for the up to 6-story and 139,000-square-foot building are expected to come before the City Commission in January.
Rollins is not growing, he said, noting that the number of undergraduates will remain at about 2,200 along with about 230 faculty and 500 staff.
“We’re not in a growth spurt,” he said. “Our real value proposition is student engagement with faculty and staff so the idea is to be able to have those faculty and staff closer so they can attend clubs and games.”
Stark said the college knows anecdotally that professors are driving to campus from everywhere from Winter Garden to Winter Springs and beyond. The median home price in Winter Park, where many neighborhoods and the campus are nestled on expensive lakefront property, are consistently higher than much of the rest of the region.
Rollins already offers faculty the opportunity to rent a small number of college-owned townhomes near Mead Botanical Gardens, but is looking to expand that program with 48 units just west of Central Park between New England and Welbourne.
A small number of graduate student units exist there now.
Rollins already owns the five parcels of land and does not pay property taxes on the highest-valued parcel at 273 W. New England where grad student housing stands now. Stark said he expected that the college would continue to be exempt from property taxes, including on the other four parcels that are currently vacant, once the new project is built. Nonprofit educational institutions are exempt from certain taxes when land is used to advance their educational mission.
The faculty housing project, which is expected to be rented at about market rate, is expected to go before the Planning & Zoning Board in January and then will go before the City Commission.
Stark said the hope is that both projects will take more cars off the roads since more faculty and students will be able to walk or ride bikes to class.
He said concerns that the faculty units would eventually be rented to students and essentially become a dorm that hops Fairbanks Avenue from the main campus are unfounded.
“That’s not happening,” he said. “There is no interest, no desire … it would remain as staff and faculty housing exclusively.”
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Rollins ESTIMATE is 300 beds UPON COMPLETION OF CONSTRUCTION.
Rollins IS NOT proposing that the building will NEVER have more than 300 beds.
Rollins could put THREE THOUSAND BEDS in the same building any time it wants.
When The Voice writes about Rollins is it ever any more than a PR snow job for the college?
Seriously? When I attended Rollins in the mid-’70’s there were men/women dorms, 2 beds to a room, linoleum floors, central, communal baths and 1 TV in the lobby. A/C was turned off in the winter. If you tried that in 2023 the students would boycott, sue and then transfer. The new 220 bed addition better be pretty pretty sweet or applicants will head elsewhere. Rollins is in an arms race with every comparable college in America. Old school is out.
This student housing sounds like a good idea as it will reduce traffic in the area and also bring additional shoppers to Park Ave and Fairbanks. So, great idea Rollins to increase student cohesion and community building. The faculty housing also sounds like a good project as long as the structure is appropriate for the location and sounds like it is. I almost forgot I am an alumnus of Rollins but took night courses in a building where Starbucks and Truist is now located! So, best of luck with the projects.
If they are renting staff and faculty housing at market rate, they are charging what for-profit businesses charge. If they have retail stores in that building, there is profit being made. Tax exempt laws need to be revised in this country! Too much latitude is given. Only the property with classrooms, dorms and necessary offices should be tax exempt. The rest is not VITAL nor REQUIRED to educate students therefore taxes should be paid on those properties.
This will likely become the Central Park Dorm in the future. Rollins will eat this quadrant like Full Sail swallowed western University /Semoran. Students will be able to choose lake side of Park side dorms. All off the tax rolls.
Why else did Rollins include a bookstore, coffee shop and classroom space? And talk about a parking deficit.
I thought the college would pay taxes on the project. Maybe not. But it’s for faculty. For grins and giggles, let’s assume they plan to put students in there in 5 years……who cares? A vacant lot for decades gets developed with younger faculty within walking distance to New England and Park Aves for the next 5 years. In 5 years, students start to move in. Who cares? The kids spend mucho dollars more than faculty (sorry, faculty) and there is an endless supply of the students. Call me old-fashioned, but I’ll take people living near the Avenue over a vacant lot any day of the week. The Park/New England Ave. need more foot traffic. Park Ave. needs to strive for Yogi Berra’s analysis: “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”