Dartmouth Signs Agreement for New Graduate Student Complex

Dartmouth last week signed an agreement with a New Jersey company that will build, own, and operate an $84 million graduate student apartment complex to be developed on 53 acres on Mount Support Road in Lebanon, N.H., just south of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

Under the terms of the agreement, Dartmouth will retain ownership of the land, leasing it for 98 years to Michaels Student Living, of Camden, N.J. Dartmouth will not pay to build the development or run it when it opens—slated for August 2022. Tenants will pay rent to Michaels. Work to clear the site began last month and foundation and utility work is expected to begin in mid-October. The Lebanon Planning Board approved the project in June.

"This is an exciting project for our graduate student community, and it is sure to help relieve the region's housing crunch," says Josh Keniston, vice president of campus services and institutional projects. "We are glad to partner with Michaels and we believe they will deliver high-quality, affordable options for our graduate and professional students."

The plans call for 309 apartments to be built in four buildings to house Dartmouth graduate and professional school students. The residences, a mix of one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom apartments, will have per-bedroom rents of $1,000 to $1,400 a month, including most utilities and WiFi, with the larger apartments costing less per room.

The apartments are to house at least 500 people and may accommodate as many as 638 residents. One or more graduate or professional school students could live in a residence or it could be home to a student and their family members. Graduate and professional students will have priority in renting the units, which will be offered as furnished residences. Unrented units would be offered to Dartmouth faculty and staff, and then to Dartmouth-Hitchcock employees and the general public.

In addition to the Advance Transit blue line bus that passes the site, Michaels will operate a daily shuttle service to Dartmouth and the medical center. The Mt. Support Road location is 3 miles from Dartmouth's campus.

A focus group of graduate students have been meeting with Dartmouth and Michaels representatives to talk about the project, most recently on Sept. 28.

Dartmouth, which has about 2,000 graduate and professional students, owns student housing at Sachem Village, off Route 10 in Lebanon, which has 255 units, with a total of 527 beds. The institution also has graduate housing on North Park Street in Hanover.

Susan Boutwell can be reached at susan.j.boutwell@dartmouth.edu.