Johns Hopkins University's Peabody Institute, a music and dance school, has seen its enrollment grow by 40% over the last seven years, and the university is now buying up real estate to house its students.
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The university paid $32M to acquire the Waterloo Place Apartments in Baltimore's Mount Vernon neighborhood from Westover Cos., and it plans to upgrade the building and convert its units to student housing, the Baltimore Business Journal reports.
The 195K SF apartment building at 649 St. Paul St. sits across the street from the Peabody Institute. It plans to move students in by fall 2026, and after that it can redevelop some existing dorm buildings that Peabody students use into academic space.
Westover acquired the property for $26M in 2009. The Philadelphia-based firm doesn't appear to own any other Baltimore buildings, but its website lists four other Maryland properties.
Johns Hopkins, one of the largest property owners in Baltimore, has been expanding its real estate footprint throughout the city and the region.
On Remington Avenue, it is planning a 500K SF artificial intelligence complex that has received pushback from a city design panel. Near Penn Station, it is partnering with the Central Baltimore Partnership on a $350M plan to redevelop the Station North area.
In Howard County, Johns Hopkins leased 109K SF of office space in 2022. And in D.C., the university acquired the former Newseum building for $302.5M in 2020, launched a $275M renovation and opened a new academic facility last year.
