Tue 30 Mar 2004
The College, which does a very good job of handling the always tricky town/gown relationship, gave tours of some new faculty apartments.
Williams College opened the doors of the tall, red brick 100-year-old former Williamstown High School and elementary school building, which has undergone a $5.5 million renovation into 15 apartments for college faculty and staff. The college paid the town $100,000 for the school, which was no longer needed as a school once the new elementary school on Church Street was completed.
In my Massachusetts town, there are hordes of private developpers who tackle projects like these. Perhaps these developpers are somehow prevented from operating in Williamstown?
By all accounts, the College did a fine job with this renovation. I was surprised to learn, however, that
Apartments at Southworth will rent for between $900 and $1,350, according to a letter the college recently sent to faculty members. Their completion brings the college’s holdings of apartments to 115, according to Helen Ouellete, Williams vice president and treasurer. Occupants will be chosen through a housing lottery next month, she said.
115? Is this a College or a property development company? Of course, we all know the arguments about how the College needs to ensure that there is good housing for faculty [and staff? -- ed]. Don’t forget about all the money spent of the housing development at Pine Cobble. But surely there comes a point when the College has done enough . . .
Of course, the cynic [realist? -- ed] says that the best way to understand most actions by the College is to see how those actions benefit the faculty.
The 15 new units join the roughly 100 other faculty units at Williams. Faculty may rent from the college until three years after they receive tenure, and administrative staff can rent for their first three years of employment.
Those terms seem, uh, generous.
The college has seen a jump in demand for rental units in recent years as the faculty has grown.
Or, the College has seen a jump in demand as it’s rental fees drop further and further beneath market rates.
March 30th, 2004 at 8:02 am
“Beneath market rates”?
When I was leaving Williams I can recall getting a haircut and telling the woman cutting my hair that my share of my rent in Boston would be $800 a month for a tiny room in a 4 bedroom place with 3 other guys.
She told me that her mortgage payments on her house just down the street were less than my $800 a month for a single room.
In Boston/Cambridge those would be fairly low prices for a studio or 1 bedroom apartment - but I would think in the Berkshires those aren’t low rates.
Granted, it was 1999, but one of my friends had a place on spring street that had 2 bedrooms and was relatively nice as those places go, and he paid under $500 a month (I think it was closer to $300).
If anything is below market rates, I would think that they got a good deal on the foundation/structure for $100K - perhaps that is what you are referring to?
March 30th, 2004 at 8:15 am
I would think that the rental rates are below market. Why else would a housing lottery be necessary to select the lucky occupants? I’d bet that these apartments are much nicer than the one that your friend rented. Why else would faculty choose these instead of his?
March 30th, 2004 at 9:20 am
I agree that the lottery would imply that there is a high demand for these apartments, but I don’t see how the lottery implies that they are under market price.
March 30th, 2004 at 9:33 am
Why would there be high demand if the rental rate were not below the market price? Answer: There wouldn’t. If you were a junior faculty member and could get an apartment of the same quality for a lower price, why would you enter the lottery?
March 30th, 2004 at 9:53 am
Perhaps the demand is high due to the lack of apartments in general.
When the various tech companies moved into the area (especially when Tripod was bought out by Lycos, the cheap rent in the area made it an attractive base over that of Waltham and they moved a lot of people up there), it ate up all of the apartments and caused a campus housing shortage my senior year (nearly all of the seniors that would have lived off campus had to find places on campus).
Bo Peabody’s venture capital efforts are “helping” as well since they have incubators for more local tech efforts as well.
If there aren’t any other apartments available, and Williams can then offer apartments that are only open to Williams related people, then they are going to be in high demand.
March 30th, 2004 at 11:48 am
Keep in mind that staff rent from the College too, not just faculty. I wonder if staff are still limited to two years in College housing before being kicked out.
March 30th, 2004 at 6:09 pm
So in spite of a Williams degree, it seems I can’t read. Dave mentions in his post that admin. staff can stay in College housing for three years. That’s an increase from when I was an employee. Staff still get the short end of the stick, but Williams isn’t any different from other institutions on that score.
April 1st, 2004 at 9:07 pm
I know that many of the old Tripod crowd left the company after the buy-out. Didn’t Lycos move the whole operation out to Waltham?
Speaking as a former Williams staff member, I can say that rent in Williamstown falls far below that for Providence, my current town. Even then, housing is much harder to find in Williamstown. One realtor I dealt with said that landlords have equal difficulty finding tenants.
April 1st, 2004 at 10:13 pm
I know that Lycos had a place in Waltham (I worked right next to it and had some friends there), but there was definitely overlap during which they were in both.
Since the Terra buyout of Lycos, I have no idea what they have done with either location.
As for the last statement I’m not sure I follow you - you are saying that in Williamstown it is hard for people to find a place to live - which would imply a scarcity of available rooms/apartments/houses… but then you say that landlords can’t find tenants, which would imply that there are empty places.
Perhaps I’m missing how one can have both of those at the same time - unless you are talking about two different locations?
April 2nd, 2004 at 9:19 am
Eric Smith said: you are saying that in Williamstown it is hard for people to find a place to live - which would imply a scarcity of available rooms/apartments/houses… but then you say that landlords can’t find tenants, which would imply that there are empty places
It doesn’t make sense to me either. I can testify to the difficulty of finding an apartment.
But the landlords’ troubles, I know only from a conversation with a realtor about the rental market in Williamstown. The realtor attributed the situation to poor communications - perhaps landlords don’t know how to advertize? or there is a surplus of crummy leak-ridden apartments, and a shortage of decent ones?
It might also be that the rental housing market fluctuates: busy in spring when students are looking, heavy in demand for summer housing, slack the rest of the year.