The Buckingham, a 27-story building at 59 E. Van Buren St., was redeveloped from office space to student housing. The building is master-leased by Columbia College Chicago. The Buckingham has 129 apartments with a total of 456 beds in addition to 4,700 sf of retail space on the ground floor. The student housing is fully pre-leased for the upcoming school year, says William Vail, SVP at US Equities. The units are also available for rent during the summer, with the student housing being rented for about 10 weeks this summer to interns, Vail says.

Fornelli Hall will be part of the Pittsfield Building, 55 E. Washington St. The Alter Group, based here, is redeveloping nine floors of the office building to 450 beds of student housing. The estimated cost of the project is $45 million. Roosevelt University and Robert Morris College both have leases for a total of 300 beds, with a third college expected to also lease space, Vail says. Each of the two schools is within three to four blocks with approximately 10 schools within an eight-block radius of the building. Fornelli Hall is scheduled to open this fall, he says.

There has been an increase in the demand for student housing in the area. Colleges and universities Downtown that had been "considered commuter schools" are now seeing a demand for student housing, Vail says. Besides students wanting to live Downtown, "their success rates are much better when they stay on campus," he says. The new student housing will also allow students to interact with students from other college and universities, Vail says.