Replay Iowa City, a new apartment complex opening next fall, hopes to stand out in the student-oriented housing market by bringing an amenity-rich complex to the west side of campus.
Some of the amenities the complex will feature include a golfing simulator, a podcast recording studio, a DIY crafts station, a dog park and pet spa, and many more, Kinley Merchant, the complex’s lease-up specialist, said.
While construction on the building is wrapping up, prospective tenants can visit Replay’s leasing office in downtown Iowa City at 124 E. Washington St. Construction. Located at 525 S. Riverside Drive, the complex is expected to be complete by July 2025, Merchant said.
Scannell Properties, the real estate development company that owns Replay, has been planning for this complex since 2021. While there are several student-oriented apartments near downtown Iowa City, Replay hopes to provide that kind of housing on the west side, Merchant said.
The complex’s 291 units all come fully furnished and are leased individually, meaning a person living in a three-bedroom unit only has to sign a lease for their individual bedroom, Merchant said. This kind of leasing is especially beneficial for students, she said.
“It helps doing it that way, especially being more catered towards students, just because a lot of times you have people that want to transfer at semester and then you’ve got one person that is stuck paying for this entire apartment,” Merchant said. “With individual leasing, you lease one bedroom, so you’re only responsible for your portion of it.”
The base rent for a single bedroom in a three-bed unit starts at $943 per month, which includes all utilities except electricity, Merchant said. The complex also has one and two-bedroom units, she said.
While Replay does individual rather than group leasing, if a group does sign to fill their entire unit, they can select the exact unit they’d like if it is still available, Paris Fietsam, the complex’s leasing and marketing manager, said.
In Replay’s eyes, the student-focused housing market in Iowa City is neither over nor undersaturated, Merchant said.
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“I would say that there are several properties in the area to choose from, but it’s great because there is something for everybody, and they can choose what property suits their needs the best,” Merchant said.
Over the last decade, Iowa City, as with many other college towns across the U.S., has seen many large-scale student housing complexes adorn its streets, Rachel Kilburg Varley, Iowa City’s economic development coordinator, wrote in an email to The Daily Iowan.
More recently, though, new building permits for student-focused housing have begun to slow, which could suggest that the market is evening out, Kilburg Varley wrote.
Iowa City’s housing market has a broad spectrum of specific needs and demands, yet the city has recorded a shortage of housing compared to its growing population, Kilburg Varley wrote. Considering this, the city celebrates any and all types of new housing developments, she wrote.
“We welcome all new housing additions across the entire building type spectrum as each project helps us meet our overall market needs,” Kilburg Varley wrote.