A Twist On Traditional Student Housing Comes To Halifax
HALIFAX—Construction has begun on a 141-unit building in North End Halifax destined to be a new kind of student housing.
The six-storey complex is going up beside the Dalhousie University campus on Seymour Street. It’s being purpose-built for the city’s student population and offered as an alternative to the typical suite of student housing options.
The company behind the project is Werkliv, a real estate development firm that exclusively builds student housing.
As Werkliv’s Maggie Terrone explains, the company aims to offer viable (and relatively affordable) alternatives to students moving out of university residences.
Daneil Goodfellow founded Werkliv eight years ago, after his own search for student housing fell flat.
Goodfellow realized most student hosing options were terrible (crowded, run-down buildings with little sense of community), and decided he wanted to build something better.
He started with a few retrofits and renovations of old buildings and has now grown to the point Werkliv is building and designing its own projects from the ground up.
As Terrone explains, the company approaches the development process differently than most other companies.
Its buildings are built specifically for students and all the design decisions flow from that: they’re built as close to campuses as possible, feature the kind of common areas students gravitate to, and all their apartments come fully furnished.
Terrone says Werkliv pulls data from exit interviews and deep dives into market research to ensure its apartments are laid out in a way that’s most useful to students.
“So how much storage do people need in their kitchens? How much storage do they need in their bedrooms? What size of desk is an ideal size of desk? What is the ergonomics of the chair that we’re supplying? What kind of seating is required in a living room? We look at all of these things,” she says.
The company has a team dedicated to answering these questions—and even creates its own furniture specifically designed to fit into Werklive spaces.
“Students want to live in spaces that don’t look terrible,” she says. Supplying all their furniture means they’re not forced to schlep to Ikea and buy a bunch of stuff they’ll likely throw out in three years.
Werkliv’s Seymour Street building will be its second in Halifax. A few years ago, the company took over the well-known Commodore building on Oxford Street.
Terrone says Werkliv’s Seymour Street complex will feature a range of units, from bachelors to five-bedroom apartments, and be able to house 491 students.
She says the company hopes to start leasing units at the beginning of next year and expects to be fully leased “quite quickly.”
She says the prices for the units will vary depending on the square footage, but that they generally work out to somewhere around $775 to $1,150 a student, including furniture and all utilities.
To read more stories like this in Huddle, sign up to receive our free daily newsletter.