Morgan State University unveils new off-campus student housing development

CBS News

a day ago

College move-in season is around the corner, and if you have a child or know a student attending Morgan State University, they should know that more student housing is on its way.
New off-campus housing comes as the university experiences record-high enrollment and significant student housing shortages.
The Morgan State community cut the ribbon on its newest off-campus student housing development on Thursday afternoon. The building is called The Enolia.
Allurea Thompson and Cyara Perstaina are both juniors at Morgan State University, who both admit they've seen their fair share of student housing issues.
"There were times when I didn't have housing, or where, because of the lack of housing, they've had to pivot, and I had to stay in a hotel," said Cyara Perstaina, a Morgan State University Student and Community Assistant. "But now I think we're at the point where they're accommodating to students as much as they can."
But they're focusing on their new home at the Enolia, the university's newest off-campus housing development for students. It is a part of an effort by school leaders to address their ongoing housing shortages.
"Like Morgan put a lot of effort and thought into the new building to make it feel like home for a lot of students who may have dealt with housing issues before," Thompson said.
Enolia is less than one mile from the main campus, and the 3.3-acre development is the first new privately built off-campus housing project for Morgan students in more than 20 years.
The building is named after Baltimore civil rights icon Enolia Pettigen McMillan, who made significant contributions to the desegregation of Maryland schools and the advancement of African Americans both in education and activism.
"We wanted this building to be the connective tissue so that people from throughout the region come to the Harford Road Main Street, patronize the great restaurants and businesses, and also that the students are able to enjoy that atmosphere as well," explained Bontiz.
"This is just the start, really. We still need more, we still want more improvement. So I know they're going to be proud," said Perstaina.
The development includes a fitness studio, study rooms, and indoor and outdoor gathering spots for its residents. It is only open to upperclassmen. The requirement to live in the building is a 3.5 GPA.
Amy Bonitz, the managing director of community development at MCB Real Estate and the developer of the project, told WJZ this project was three years in the making.
"It had a major utility line going through the center of the site, and so we had to demolish four buildings and coordinate relocating the city's actual electrical grid in order to be able to create the space to build the building," Bonitz said.
"When we opened the portal for students to apply to live there come this fall, within a few hours of opening the portal, it crashed because we had several 1000 students who actually wanted to put that application in," said Morgan State University President Dr. David Wilson.
Morgan State University President Dr. David K. Wilson explained that the university continues to see record-high enrollment and anticipates seeing more this fall. Wilson said that while high enrollment is a good thing, it is a cause of their housing issues.
"With all of the housing that we are building on the campus, there'll still be tremendous need to have off-campus housing that is within the Morgan catchment area," Wilson said.
Wilson explained to WJZ that this is why they've built the Enolia and plan to build more housing.
"We have taken offline another legacy building, and we're going to renovate it and bring it back online in 15 months, and we're going to break ground in a few months on another eight-story tower on the campus," Wilson said.