Midtown student housing delay frustrates tenants, parents

The midtown apartment building they were planning to move into won't be ready in time.

Some college students are scrambling to find temporary housing because the Midtown Atlanta apartment complex they planned to call home may not be ready in time for the start of the fall semester.

Students and parents received emails last week with information about the delay at The Standard, on Spring Street near the Varsity. About 200 tenants who pre-leased units have been affected, said officials of Landmark Properties, the company managing The Standard.

Andrea Sendobry paid a deposit for her daughter, McKenna, to live there during her senior year at Georgia Tech with three roommates. It would be McKenna’s first experience living off campus, and she was excited. Sendobry passed by the site daily and wondered when she signed a lease agreement in March if it would be ready by August. She said she was told it would.

“I was completely in shock,” Sendobry said. “Here we are in summer and we’re scrambling to find housing.”

The email said the company hopes The Standard will be open no later than mid-September. Sendobry said leasing office employees told her they knew three weeks ago there would be a delay.

“It’s beyond inconsiderate,” she told Channel 2 Action News.

Sendobry is looking for housing elsewhere in the area, but she said the search is difficult at this point.

The delay is being blamed on inclement winter weather, which Landmark officials said prevented construction crews from working on the site. Tenants are being allowed to terminate their lease agreements.

“Currently, we are on track to deliver 12 floors in the high-rise building and a segment of the units in the mid-rise building by August 18, as originally scheduled,” the company said in a statement. “We continue to work as quickly and as safely as possible to complete The Standard and welcome residents to their new homes in Midtown.”

The Standard markets itself to Georgia Tech and Georgia State students. It has 257 apartments, totaling 765 beds. It’s described on its website as a luxury development, with a VIP lounge and pool, a rooftop deck, a computer lab and study lounge and a fitness center with a yoga/spin studio. The monthly rents range from $1,029 to $1,710.