Greystar celebrates opening of two new residence halls at Merrimack College

North Andover, MA Greystar and Merrimack College celebrated the opening of two new residence halls, Shawsheen and Essex. The two-building, modern student housing development is located at the intersection of Rte. 114 and Andover St. Designed by Cube 3 and built by Greystar Construction, the two four-story residence halls add 537 new beds to Merrimack’s campus to meet the growing need for on-campus living space. The student housing facilities represent the largest increase in Merrimack’s housing stock since 2015.

The Shawsheen Residence Hall consists of traditional-style student housing, totaling 351 beds across 79,600 s/f. Essex Residence Hall, which sits adjacent across an outdoor plaza, is 61,300 s/f and consists of an additional 186 beds in suite-style rooms, featuring en-suite living rooms and bathrooms. Both buildings will create new living options for primarily third- and fourth-year undergraduate students, as well as honors students. Residents of the new buildings will have access to amenities including a fitness center, in-building laundry, and other communal spaces, including a pavilion for honors students inside Shawsheen.

“Student housing is an important piece of Greystar’s work. We have over 30 years of experience on college campuses across the country and are thrilled to have partnered with Merrimack College on the development of Shawsheen and Essex Residence Halls,” said Ryan Souls, managing director of development at Greystar, at the event. “Exceptional living spaces are integral to supporting student success, and we are incredibly excited to hear the early positive feedback from students already settling into their homes here for the year.”

Made possible through a public private partnership (P3) between Merrimack, Greystar, and Collegiate Housing Foundation (CHF), a nonprofit 501(c)(3) owner of student housing facilities, an affiliate of CHF will own the assets through a long-term land lease with Merrimack College, who will then own the buildings at the end of the lease period. The entirety of funding for the construction of the student housing development was raised from tax-exempt bonds underwritten by Stifel and issued by MassDevelopment. Across the country, colleges and universities are utilizing P3 partnerships to allocate more funding to academic programs and minimize risk.

“It’s not just the buildings or the rooms, but what’s important to us is that Shawsheen and Essex represent who we are, and are designed to bring students together,” said Dr. Christpher Hopey, president of Merrimack College. “It’s very important that we designed these buildings not just for today, but for the future, and how students’ lives will change. Shawsheen and Essex recreate our connection to the community and are the front gate to where we’re going. We’re excited about this new chapter.”

Greystar, who developed and will manage the residence halls, has over 30 years of student housing experience, 31 university partnerships, and has been awarded or delivered over $6 billion in on campus development projects since 2000. In addition to its student housing development, Greystar has developed over 2,000 units of housing in Massachusetts to date. The firm recently opened Juniper, its fifth apartment development in Everett, held a demolition ceremony for its 390-unit Whittenton Mills development project in Taunton, and celebrated a groundbreaking for a 189-unit MBTA Communities project in Needham.