Star Global Ventures Breaks Ground at UMCP

By George Berkheimer, STAFF WRITER

After a name change and several years spent negotiating the process of refining its business focus, Star Global Ventures (SGV) of Columbia (formerly Star Hotels) has broken ground on one of the first projects of the company's new era.
StarView Plaza, a $33 million student housing project at 8700 Baltimore Avenue in College Park, will contain 172 residences and provide housing for 669 undergraduate students at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP). The phased project is expected to be completed in August 2011, with a 94-unit, 369-bed first phase scheduled to open by the end of the current calendar year.
Designed as a mixed-use development, the seven-story upscale complex will include 9,500 square feet of first-floor retail space and 7,000 square feet of space dedicated to student amenities, in addition to a 10,000-square-foot green roof feature.
The project is overseen by Star Development Group, a division of SGV, and is
being financed by a consortium of credit unions led by the State Employee's Credit Union (SECU), the largest state-chartered union in Maryland.
Prince George's County and City of College Park officials worked with SGV to expedite approval of the project, which has also benefited from the involvement of the Community Legacy Program, a neighborhood revitalization program which falls under the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development.
"[It] is an excellent example of collaboration between the private and public sector," said SGV's CEO and President Mukesh Majmudar.

Jobs and Revenue
Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson (D) participated in the StarView Plaza groundbreaking ceremony on Dec. 14, 2009.
"I am especially proud of the developer ... for his commitment, tenacity and for seeing this project into fruition," said Johnson. "Despite the recession, this project has continued to move forward and will contribute to the community and economy."
The project is expected to create hundreds of new jobs and millions in tax revenue during the coming years. Moreover, it also falls in line with the goal of both the county and the City of College Park to revitalize properties located along the Route 1 Corridor and near the university.
StarView Plaza is located within a City of College Park Revitalization District and will enhance the community by removing the existing deteriorating conditions and adding a superiorly designed, LEED-certified building and pedestrian-friendly atmosphere, Johnson said.
SGV's next venture is a Homewood Suites hotel and restaurant, to be located adjacent to The Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel.

Expanding Star
Star Global Ventures officials said the student housing project accurately illustrates what the company has been trying to achieve with its evolution.
"The Star Hotels name limited us to just hotel products," said Josh Peters, SGV's senior vice president for development, "but we've actually been working on expanding within the demographic globally for a couple of years."
The new name serves to realign the old company image to reflect its expanded operations, he said, and also helps to insert the company into more potential markets, from dormitory and military construction projects to senior housing and even office retail opportunities.
"The core focus will still be on hotels," Peters said, adding that the company plans to stay focused on the Baltimore-Washington region, but plans to diversify both nationally and globally during the next decade.
Looking globally, Majmudar has set his sights on emerging markets. "There is a lot of growth in Asia at the moment," he said. "We're considering China, India and Thailand as natural fits, and the atmosphere in Sri Lanka is getting better now."
Majmudar has natural historic ties with India and hopes to capitalize on his familiarity with the country and its way of doing business.
"Both Hilton and Choice Hotels tried to enter India in the past three or four years, but they lacked a connection with local companies and developers and things didn't work out for them," he said. "They're now encouraging us to go there [to help soften the entry]."
SGV is also looking to capitalize on its LEED experience in the foreign market. "We may have the upper hand in green building, as Asian countries are now focusing on this aspect and looking for someone to deliver it," Majmudar said.

Filling a Need
In addition to helping revitalize the Route 1 Corridor, StarView Plaza addresses one of the biggest concerns on the minds of College Park officials, that being the lack of adequate student housing on or near the campus.
"There is a high demand for undergraduate housing ... and we are not able to accommodate all of the undergraduate students who want to live on campus," said Dennis Passarella-George, the university's assistant director for housing partnerships.
According to Mike Glowacki, assistant to the University's Resident Life director, the waiting list for undergraduate housing has been steady in recent years, falling between 800 to 1,100 students on average.
"The waiting list for this academic year was 1,102 students," he said, "but that gets whittled down in time due to students walking away from the list and openings that occur between the fall and spring semesters. The new housing will definitely help us out."
Irene Redmiles, the UMCP's director of real estate, said university officials appreciate that a local company is building the new housing and that SGV was on hand to help with the approval process.
"One of the biggest upsides to having a local company is the complexity and difficulty of the project," she said, which included land assemblage and grant issues. "Having local access to the company was very helpful."
SGV's design team solicited input from UMCP's Student Government to help design the new housing development.