Bryan Properties capitalizes on trending housing model

With owner Bryan Magers at the helm, Bryan Properties LLC is tapping into a student-housing trend that’s taking over the Queen City.

At Bryan Properties’ $30 million Bear Village development near Missouri State University, his company does the most business renting rooms by the bed, a departure from typical leases. The project also features myriad, including a theater room, dog park and fire pit, another trending development in student housing.

Bear Village traces its roots to the Magers family buying older residences on the west side of the university, but that turned out to be more trouble than it was worth.

“We were putting a lot of money into keeping them up, but I never lost sight that either my heirs or I would step up and build a project on that Grand, Kimbrough, Madison and Roanoke property,” Magers said this morning at Springfield Business Journal’s live interview series 12 People You Need to Know.

In the early part of the decade, he got a call from commercial real estate agent Tim Roth, whose partner, Denver-based Beacon Student Housing, sought tax abatement nearby. Roth asked if he was interested in approaching City Council.

“Either I had to do it at that time or I was never going to do it,” said Magers, who secured tax abatement on improvements for 10 years.

It wasn’t a big leap into a large student-housing project. Magers and his family were well versed in student needs having owned properties in the area for decades.

“I had known the student profile since the mid-70s,” he said. “Knowing that and leasing to them all those years, I’d hoped that I’m correct - we’re still not finished with the project - that they were looking for better housing, more amenities.

“When I was checking, that seemed to be a trend that was going on around the country.”

With research from Columbia, Fayetteville, Ark., and Lawrence, Kan., Bryan Properties found students were transitioning from dormitories to properties leased by the bed - where it’s on the developer to find a new roommate if one leaves - and a decked-out clubhouse and commons.

Noting Bear Village is about halfway done, Magers said contractors still need to add four buildings, bringing the development to 750 beds from its current 375. Bryan Properties is targeting a fall 2017 completion date.

“Our residents now are having to live in construction,” he said. “We’ve got to just go ahead and finish the whole project.”

At around $600 per bed, Bear Village stays near full occupancy, but Magers acknowledges increasing pressure from competition is forcing the company to up its game. Last summer, the development required 35 leases in the summer to reach capacity, and this year, another 20 are needed on top of that.

Magers pointed to the 580-bed Aspen Heights development underway on St. Louis street as a strong competitor.

“We feel like next year will be fine, but there’s a lot of transitioning going on with the students who are coming here, the transfers who are coming from the University of Missouri,” he said. “It’s going to be a little more difficult this year to fill up.”

Magers believes the trend toward the Bear Village style of housing will continue, and if MSU adds more residence halls, it will only benefit his company. University officials have said a recommendation for a new residence hall could go before its board by the end of the year.

“I wish they would build more,” Magers said. “Our business comes from students leaving dorms.”