Landlord snaps up Knox Boxes

An unprecedented buy up of Knox Box apartments over the past year has landed more than half of the aging buildings under the control of a single person, sparking hope that the area could soon see redevelopment.

Since August of last year, landlord Janet Firth has acquired 13 Knox Boxes under the company name Knox Box Realty, and starting in May, a company called Knox Village Partners purchased an additional 20. City leaders have called the Knox Box area among the city's most developable, and others believe the property consolidation could signal the first giant step toward freeing the land for development.

Firth, who owned the Knox Box where senior David Ellis died in a fire last year, has a clear connection to all of the properties recently purchased: She owns Knox Box Realty, and several tenants in properties recently purchased by Knox Village Partners named Firth as their landlord. Firth declined to confirm she owned both of the firms, which are listed as limited liability corporations, but both of the firms' addresses are located in the same shopping center on Rockville Pike.

City and student leaders alike have long eyed the area for redevelopment because of its proximity to the campus and downtown. But they have called the 1950s-era housing inefficient and said more efficient housing such as highrises are more appropriate for the city. Fifty-two Knox Boxes now stand on Hartwick, Knox, Rossburg and Guilford roads.

"Traditionally college towns have a lot of housing on campus and adjacent to campus. We've not [had that] in College Park," District 3 Councilman Eric Olson said. "Good planning means that you have more students living within walking distance of campus and creating a community right next to campus."

For years, however, Knox Box-area redevelopment seemed unlikely as the dozens of individual owners there would need to cooperate and sign on to a single project. Now that the properties have been consolidated, however, developers may become more interested in a project there.

"Several years ago a developer would have to deal with probably 30 or 40 [owners]," District 1 Councilman David Milligan said. "The advantage of them being collected by someone like [Firth] means there's less people for them to deal with."

Student Government Association President Emma Simson agreed, but added that the intention of the owner will determine whether the consolidation hinders or promotes development.

"It depends a lot on the owners and what they would like to see [done] with them," Simson said. "Obviously if there is one owner who is very reluctant and they own a large number of the Knox Boxes, then that can be more problematic."

In an interview, former Knox Box owner Rob Davis said he had intended to buy up Knox Boxes and build three student highrises. He sold his property to Firth, however, when she began upping the ante on how much she'd pay for the properties, he said.

"We got ourselves in a bidding war, and I no longer wanted to participate in the bidding war when the price got too high," Davis said. "She was willing to buy at that price, [so I said,] 'Wonderful, I'll sell it at that price.'"

Davis added that while he was not aware of any specific plans that Firth had, he said the owner of Knox Village Partners "had a vision or have a vision, just like I had a vision for the project, and their pockets were deeper than mine."

It remains unclear who owns Knox Village Partners.

According to Firth, development isn't in her "game plan," as the high cost of land would require a large development project in order to be economically rewarding for a developer.

"My intention from the very first one that I purchased is to provide high-quality student housing," Firth said, adding she had put over $300,000 into renovating the houses this summer. "The only thing I can share with you is that I'm running them as student housing and continuing to upgrade them."

Former SGA President Andrew Rose, who helped organize a collaborative a plan among SGA members, architecture and planning majors that depicted students' ideas for Knox Box redevelopment, said despite the costs cited by Firth, development is clearly on the horizon.

"No one in their right mind would spend half a million dollars on a half a Knox Box just to rent them out," Rose said. "I think it's pretty well known by the university and city that those efforts are happening. I think that development will happen there as soon as those [remaining Knox Boxes] can be compiled, if not earlier."

Olson said that developers have approached the city with an interest in the area but declined to comment further.

"There is a lot of interest in redeveloping it, both from the city and the university," Olson said, adding that because of the purchases there is "private interest" as well.

Rose acknowledged Firth's statement that the cost of land was high, and said that as a result, students can expect that if housing is built in the Knox Box area, rental costs could be exorbitant.

"Whatever goes there will have rent comparable to [University] View, if not higher," Rose said. "That's what I'm scared of, and I don't know how to get around it, that's just the economics of the situation."

Reporter Mina Dixon contributed to this report. Contact reporter Steven Overly at overlydbk@gmail.com.