UCity’s International House Reopening As Co-Living, Still Targeting Students
One of the most famous student housing buildings in University City, International House, is reopening as a co-living operation, with new owners promising an experience that hews closely to its long history as a home for lower-income students and those from around the world.
The building at 3701 Chestnut St., renamed The Mason on Chestnut, has been redeveloped by CSC Coliving, which purchases and develops properties for co-living, with consultation from local developer Alterra Property Group.
Outpost Club, a New York-based operator branching into Philadelphia for the first time, was selected in September to manage the property, which includes 80K SF of commercial space on the ground floor.
The organization that initially founded International House as a haven for Chinese students at the University of Pennsylvania, before expanding to accept all international students and low-income American students, is no longer affiliated with the property after selling it CSC in September of last year.
But Outpost Club intends to keep the mission alive by renting to the same mix of students, as well as some recent graduates working as interns and nurses or doctors doing a rotation at one of Philadelphia’s institutions, co-founder and CEO Sergii Starostin told Bisnow.
“People who live collectively form friendships and connections, which first of all helps them not to be alone,” he said. “They also exchange things about their work, their lives, their friends, etc. So the property was already conceived with a lot of common areas to help make connections, and we hope to continue that spirit with our programming.”
Constructed in 1970, International House was awarded historic protection as an exemplar of the brutalist style of architecture soon after the building’s sale was announced. The development partners have sought approval for an addition that, in early designs, would have dwarfed the original, but no plans have been finalized, Starostin said.
Eight of the 14 floors in the 220K SF building, containing about half of its 409 units, have been brought online, with the rest scheduled to be operational by the end of the year, Starostin said. Three of the residential floors contain studio and one-bedroom apartments, which average 360 SF and 530 SF, respectively. The rest contain pods of eight bedrooms, some of which total 250 SF including en suite bathrooms and others at 90 SF, which share bathrooms with the rest of the pod.
In addition to building amenities like an indoor basketball court that converts to a private theater, a third-floor roof deck, fitness center, yoga studio, game room, private study rooms and conference rooms, common lounges dot the footprint of Mason on Chestnut. The building is split into east and west wings, with each wing having a bank of elevators that lets out on a stairwell landing between two floors, each with two pods. Common areas share the same quasi-floor as the elevator banks.
Beyond simply trading personal unit size for common areas, Outpost Club has partnered with financial services firm Qira to keep costs down for tenants. No security deposits are required for tenants at Mason on Chestnut, which Qira guarantees in exchange for a monthly fee that Outpost Club pays.
Lease terms can also be flexible, down to as little as one month, though shorter leases have higher monthly costs. The smallest units cost $899 per month on a 12-month lease, while one-bedroom units cost $1,849 according to Mason on Chestnut’s website. The average rent for a studio apartment in University City is $980 per month as of Nov. 17, while the average rent for one-bedroom apartments in the neighborhood is $1,710 per month, according to rental listing site Zumper.
Among the programs Outpost Club plans to launch next spring is one assisting residents in launching businesses by leasing retail space in the building at discounted prices and offering assistance for things like tenant improvements. Two-thirds of the commercial space at Mason on Chestnut is vacant, with the remaining third leased to Penn Global, Penn’s department for international students and studies. Ideally, the entrepreneurship program will take up about 20% of the commercial space not leased to Penn, with the rest going to traditional retail tenants, possibly including a grocery store, Starostin said.
About half of the residents who have already moved in at Mason on Chestnut are from outside the U.S., and the tenant mix consists of undergraduates, recent graduates, visiting nurses and medical residents, Starostin said.
CORRECTION, NOV. 19, 10:40 A.M. ET: A previous version of this article misstated Alterra's relationship to the Mason on Chestnut development.
CORRECTION, NOV. 22, 2:45 P.M. ET: A previous version of this article misstated Qira's security deposit arrangement. This article has been updated.
