A glimpse at luxury student living inside downtown Ann Arbor's Zaragon West

Posted on Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 5:59 a.m.

A glimpse at luxury student living inside downtown Ann Arbor's Zaragon West

By Lizzy Alfs

A two-bedroom model apartment at Zaragon West looking south from the ninth floor.
Jeffrey Smith | AnnArbor.com

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A two-bedroom model apartment at Zaragon West looking south from the ninth floor. Jeffrey Smith | AnnArbor.com

Stunning views of downtown Ann Arbor. Flat-screen HDTV’s mounted to your wall. A state-of-the-art fitness center and on-site parking.

These are just some of the perks of living at Zaragon West, one of downtown Ann Arbor’s newest student high-rise developments.

As the first tenants prepare to move in to the 14-story, 200-bed high-rise on Monday, AnnArbor.com was offered a first glimpse inside the building, which is located on the southeast corner of Thompson and William streets.

From the fitness center located on the first-floor, to the in-room washers and dryers, Zaragon West is a far cry from the more traditional student housing near downtown.

But these amenities — and the convenient location — don’t come without a cost. Rents at Zaragon West range from $1,175 to $1,650 per bed per month.

Developer Rick Perlman of Chicago-based Zaragon Inc. said both Zaragon West and its sister property, Zaragon Place on East University Avenue, are nearly 100 percent leased for fall 2012.

Lizzy Alfs is a business reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at 734-623-2584 or email her at lizzyalfs@annarbor.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lizzyalfs.

Comments

chapmaja

Tue, Aug 7, 2012 : 1:06 p.m.

Is there any wonder that graduates in this country are drowning in student loan debt. What do you want to bet that at least some of the students living in these facilities will be taking out student loans to pay for school, room and board, ect. Paying this much money to live in a facility like this is one of the reasons that students graduate with so much debt hanging over them. Maybe AA.com could follow up with the residents of these facilities and ask them if they are getting student loans to help pay for college. I would be very interested to see how living in these places really impacts the student loan debtload of college students and graduates.

Lizzy Alfs

Tue, Aug 7, 2012 : 1:37 p.m.

@chapmaja: Interesting idea. That might be something our U-M reporter should look into in the coming months!

Me717

Tue, Aug 7, 2012 : 12:44 p.m.

After reading some of these comments I looked up the taxes for Zaragon East on the City of AA website. It said $19,011.86 for summer and $4,117.61 winter. How does this work? That's not nearly enough for all those units. Does anyone know why it's so low?

LXIX

Tue, Aug 7, 2012 : 12:01 p.m.

I admire Richard Perlman for having the chutzpah to squeeze his former employer billionaire Sam Zell out of $1.8 million in court. Zell's now crumbled Equity real estate empire uglified more than a few area properties/careers in the name of productivity (greed). Let us hope the Z in Zaragon is not the tribute to that past.

Dennis

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 9:04 p.m.

I find it pretty amusing that they claim to be at near 100% occupancy for the fall. Last school year at Zargon Place they were nowhere near that. Walking past the building in the evening during the winter you would see lights on in only maybe 10 units.

djacks24

Tue, Aug 7, 2012 : 2:06 a.m.

"I find it pretty amusing that they claim to be at near 100% occupancy for the fall." And I wonder how many of the student occupants are from Michigan and paying in-state tuition?

nowayjose

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 6:58 p.m.

Show me how luxury they look in about two years

JRW

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 5:49 p.m.

Glad to see more of these lux high rises in town. Maybe some of the slumlords around town ripping off students will go out of business! Keep building these wonderful student complexes with all the amenities!

Pappa

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 4:56 p.m.

I wouldn't move in there even if I had the money. Looks like a big rip. Totally IKEA'D out. If they were smart they would buy a house, live there for 4 years, and then either sell it or have their younger brothers or sisters move in for another 4 years.

Angry Moderate

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 9:20 p.m.

Just because they're willing to pay expensive rent doesn't mean they're willing to co-sign a risky $100,000+ mortgage.

Dennis

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 9:07 p.m.

My cousin did this when he was at UM in the 90's. By the time he had graduated he was paying the mortgage on his own and had already repaid his father for the down payment. He sold the house to buy his first home when he he got married. Of course that was in the 90's. It was little different real estate market back then.

Pappa

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 7:03 p.m.

Think about it for a second. Who's paying for the luxury apartment? Not the 17 or 18 year old. Daddy Warbucks would front the mortgage bill. Duh!

seldon

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 6:59 p.m.

Well-off parents sometimes do that, actually. Obviously the kids aren't usually the signers.

Angry Moderate

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 6:19 p.m.

Yeah, it's easy for a 17-18 year old college freshman to get approved for a mortgage.

LXIX

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 4:42 p.m.

Assess and Tax every Ann Arbor property by unit address. Enforce the safe population limit by unit address. Every added person whether they be UM student or suburban family member adds a city service cost. Fire, police, traffic, trash, water, sewer, power load, parking, parks & recreation, etc. Taxes should fairly address each cost across the budget by contributor. This will correct the flaw of unbridled density investment, flophouse overpopulation, and UM obligation to the community while balancing a lopsided city budget favouring outside influences.

Angry Moderate

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 5:36 p.m.

Wow, I didn't know we had a problem with flophouse overpopulation in $1,500/month high rise apartments.

Mick52

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 3:56 p.m.

What happened to Ann Arbor's efforts to require builders to provide some space for low income housing? I thought housing was supposed to include space for low income people. Did that get tossed?

Tom Whitaker

Tue, Aug 7, 2012 : 5:19 a.m.

Low income housing, and other certain features are only required as trade-offs when developers deviate from the base zoning of the site--such as adding extra floors. In this case, Zaragon West was built within the base parameters of D2, so they weren't required to add any low income housing.

seldon

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 6:58 p.m.

I think the requirement to include low-income units is something that gets included (or doesn't) as part of the zoning approval process. It may not have been required here.

Mick52

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 5:55 p.m.

No, no, StopCrying, this is not UM housing, it is privately owned and the UM has no control over it. I think anyone, student or not could live here. I think the builder is focusing on students, but I doubt you could refuse a person as a tenant because they are not a student.

StopCrying

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 4:34 p.m.

It is student housing isn't it? I imagine that allows the U to decide the cost of rent and not worry about the cities ordinances that relate towards the cities housing.

seldon

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 3:47 p.m.

Anyone who believes that this is in any way subsidized by the state is way off. Even UM isn't as subsidized by the state as a lot of people think. State funding of the University of Michigan: it's really low. I've usually heard under 20%, but here they're saying around 7% (presumably of the total budget): http://www.npr.org/2012/06/21/155524647/are-public-universities-still-public UM says less than 17% of the General Fund: http://www.vpcomm.umich.edu/pa/key/understandingtuition.html

Dog Guy

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 3:18 p.m.

While at U of M for seven years I lived in an attic for $25 per month. It had cross-ventilating windows, a REAL luxury.

garrisondyer

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 9:57 p.m.

Haha, I hear ya, Dog Guy! You haven't lived until you've turned an attic into a bedroom.

dexterreader

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 1:39 p.m.

My son lived in Willowtree apts. on North Campus for 3 years. There were 3 people in his 2-bedroom apartment (which was quite large). He worked while a student at UM, so he paid half his rent portion and I paid the other half. Far, far cheaper than living in the dorms. He had a vehicle while living there, but used the free bus system to get to class. It worked out great and we saved a LOT of money.

DJBudSonic

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 1:14 p.m.

If the students living here live like most students in my day they will have to move the dirty laundry pile to get into the kitchen. I guess this is a "new generation" of student? One more concerned about social amenities than cost of living; when I was in school, before this type of building was available, the only people I knew who lived in the then height-of-luxury Tower Plaza were rich kids from New York.

GoNavy

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 1:06 p.m.

Enjoy it now - digs like this cost real money after you graduate, so chances are decent that this will be the nicest place most of you live in for the next 10 years.

GoNavy

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 6:51 p.m.

@Billy Bob Schwartz- The budget figures you asked about earlier are from the University of Michigan website: http://www.provost.umich.edu/budgeting/budget_2012-2013.html "Achieving our goals of excellence and access has been challenging. State support to U-M per student has declined by more than 50% over the past decade, adjusting for inflation, and today our state appropriation constitutes just 16.9% of our General Fund budget."

seldon

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 3:48 p.m.

There never has been nobility in being poor. Being poor is something you do when you don't have a choice. It sucks, and it can mess you up long term, between credit damage and lack of medical care.

GoNavy

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 2:49 p.m.

Both of you are spot-on. Even after I had graduated, I witnessed many peers going back to their parents to pay not only security deposits, or just 1st or last months' rent, but full-on rent subsidies to the tune of $1-2K a month. There's no nobility anymore in starting out poor and earning your way up.

Billy Bob Schwartz

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 1:38 p.m.

Unless Daddy won't let that happen.

seldon

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 1:33 p.m.

Depends on just how rich their folks are, actually.

A2ron

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 1:05 p.m.

The income gap and the amount of parental support varies at U-M... this is hardly news to me. Looks like a nice place for those who can afford it, I wish them well. It is sad though, no self-supporting student will ever be able to live there. Siiiigh.

mohomed

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 12:42 p.m.

Are they going to build one of these in downtown ypsi for Eastern Students?

StopCrying

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 4:31 p.m.

Peninsular Place is as close as it gets my friend.

Salbolal

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 12:36 p.m.

Ironic placement of this article on the front page next to one on donations for school supplies for homeless children.....

anonymous

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 12:34 p.m.

I do not understand all the criticism of this building. Yes, it is a very nice building. And clearly it is being marketed to a certain segment of the UM student community. But why does anyone care? The construction project provides jobs to the local community; the resident community will likely stimulate the local economy as it patronizes local stores. This seems like a good thing for the AA community. what am I missing?

a2girl

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 10:13 p.m.

Billy Bob - Don't you know that it is the 2% now that we are permited to hate? They figured out that there isn't enough money in the 1%.

lumberg48108

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 7:30 p.m.

You are missing that people are insecure and want to bash others who do not have what they want People seem to resent the fact some parents can send their kids to U-M and live like this ... i dont get it -- sure I am jealous but what value do you gain by tearing these people down? as far as affluence and luxury - its simple - the market will support it or it wont - all arguements about needs vs. wants are meaningless ... they will fill the rooms and make money or they will go broke with vacancies i guess people will enjoy that if it fails - as if it failing makes up for the void in your life

anonymous

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 2:12 p.m.

what would your thoughts be if you were a construction worker who is supporting his family? Or perhaps a small business owner who relies on the campus community to maintain a thriving business? This project may not be your cup of tea..but can't you respect the folks who are supporting themselves as result of the project?

Billy Bob Schwartz

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 1:37 p.m.

You're also missing the disgust of the 99% for the fancies of the 1%. It's also known as the arrogance of wealth.

Ghost of Tom Joad

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 1:07 p.m.

you're missing the unbridled hatred for all things UM.

Ariel

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 12:30 p.m.

That rent is more than my mortgage. Ridiculous!

Mick52

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 3:51 p.m.

Just what I am thinking. 2500 square feet and almost 2 acres for about the same price!

blueeyegirl

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 12:28 p.m.

Not sure if I would like my laundry going while I'm cooking???

A2comments

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 11:55 a.m.

The low price is for quad occupancy. $1,500 each for a double and the high price is for a single. There are a lot of wealthy students and students are used to small rooms.. Likely these rates are for 12 month leases, versus dorms which charge for 8 months. The 8 month rate, per person, for a double - including 150 meals a week - is $9,752 or $1,219 a month. Any off campus housing for 8 months raises the rate well over the 12 month rate. My son will be living in a frat for $650 a month for 8 months. No A/C, has to walk to CCRB to workout, ... Life can be so hard... :-)

Modern_Atheist

Tue, Aug 7, 2012 : 12:11 p.m.

... white people...

justcurious

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 11:52 a.m.

Reminds me of a hotel.

Madeleine Borthwick

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 3:21 p.m.

justcurious, I have seen hotels that looked considerably worse!!!! case in point: the Embassy. no smoke detectors anywhere, no fire extinguishers, not even a sprinkler system, carpets that haven't been professionally cleaned in who-knows-how-many years, and owners who don't give a "spit". I know. I worked there for all of 2 days. it's a fire trap. people, trust me, spend the extra $$$ and go to the Campus Inn. it costs more but at least there you have owners who don't violate the fire code.

Ignatz

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 11:48 a.m.

Widen that gap!

simone66

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 11:24 a.m.

"$1,175 to $1,650 per bed per month" Per BED... not per apt. Ouch! Pack 'em in in that's the Zaragon way.

R.B.

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 10:27 a.m.

Wow, that's quite bit...I love the UofM but really?