Site Planning Concepts

The Current Campus Idea

A compact residential village and a substantial robotics and technical center are the current starting points for planning the 18.96-acre Sands Drive site.

The initial housing concept uses two four-story buildings with approximately 320 beds, while preserving a significant portion of the property for robotics laboratories, shops, classrooms, industry collaboration, parking, circulation, and future expansion.

The plan is intentionally not fixed. Housing absorption, suite design, parking demand, building footprints, engineering, and the ultimate robotics program all require additional work. The objective at this stage is to establish a coherent campus framework that can accommodate those decisions as the project advances.

Conceptual zone diagram over the real Sands Drive parcel boundary: a residential zone near the north end closest to Albany State's campus, a larger robotics and innovation zone across the middle and south of the site, and a shared campus zone along the road frontage. Explicitly labeled as a conceptual diagram, not an engineering site plan.
Conceptual zone diagram, not an engineering site plan. The parcel boundary shown is real (18.96 ac, from Dougherty County assessor GIS); the zones are illustrative and not measured or engineered.
Working principle: robotics campus anchor, compact residential buildings, disciplined parking, preserved expansion capacity - one coordinated university-oriented development, not a site filled with buildings and parking lot by lot.

Residential

320-Bed Residential Starting Point

The present starting concept, not a final commitment:

ItemValue
Buildings2, four stories each
Suites per floor10
Suites per building40
Total suites80
Students per suite4
Beds per building160
Total beds320

A future third building remains an expansion option only. The Phase I case is the two-building, 320-bed program above; if a third building is added later using the same configuration, total suites would rise to approximately 120 and total beds to approximately 480.

Demand context

Fall 2025 enrollment figures for Albany State University, per the university's own Fall 2025 Quick Facts Report:

MetricApprox.
Total students6,820
Undergraduates6,167
First-time freshmen1,457
Freshmen (all)2,376
Sophomores1,497
Freshmen + sophomores combined3,873

The first-time freshman class was approximately 72% women, 28% men. The 320-bed concept is therefore approximately 22% of one first-time freshman class, or 8% of the combined freshman/sophomore population.

These ratios are useful context. They do not prove absorption, and the project does not claim all 320 beds will automatically be filled. The design should stay operationally flexible - suites, floors, wings, or buildings assignable by actual enrollment and demand over time, not hard-coded to a permanent gender-specific split.

The housing question that matters most: will the proposed product be attractive, priced, and differentiated enough to capture and retain approximately 320 beds? Albany State's enrollment sets the ceiling on that question; it does not answer it. Formal demand work is still needed.

Suite Concept

Four-Person Suite Concept

These are planning-stage student suites, not conventional double-occupancy dorm rooms - four residents per suite, each with a private bedroom and a private bathroom. A first-pass suite size is approximately 1,200 to 1,400 square feet as a planning range; final unit design is still to be determined.

The working layout is a four-bedroom, four-bathroom suite: four private bedrooms, each with its own bed, desk, dresser, closet, and private bathroom; a shared living area; and an open kitchen with a dining area. This mirrors a proven configuration used in university-oriented housing - for example, the four-bed, four-bath suite at University Suites near NC State (roughly 1,398 square feet). The private-bathroom concept is intentional: the product is not being conceived as the cheapest possible institutional bed, and the working thesis is that a better-quality residential product can improve absorption, resident satisfaction, durability, and pricing power. That thesis is not yet proven economics. Final dimensions, fixtures, and kitchen configuration remain to be set in design.

Illustrative concept diagram of a four-bedroom, four-bathroom student suite: four private bedrooms (A, B, C, D), each with a bed, desk, dresser, closet, and its own private bathroom; a central shared living room; and an open kitchen with dining area and seating.
Illustrative concept diagram, not an architectural drawing. Four private bedrooms, four private baths, a shared living room, and an open kitchen with dining. Modeled on a published university 4-bed / 4-bath suite; layout and dimensions are conceptual and will be set in design.

Building scale, conceptual

At approximately 10 suites per floor and roughly 1,200 to 1,400 SF per suite, net suite area per floor is on the order of 12,000 to 14,000 SF. Gross building area per floor will be higher after common circulation, stairs, elevators, walls, mechanical areas, laundry, lounges, and service space.

ItemConceptual range
Gross SF per floor15,000-17,500
Gross SF per 4-story building60,000-70,000
Gross SF, both buildings120,000-140,000

These are planning figures only, labeled conceptual/approximate. No detailed floor plan or engineered building design exists yet.

Robotics + Technical

Robotics + Technical Innovation Center

The robotics building is a major part of the concept, not secondary space left over after housing. The working vision is a substantial university-style building - brick or masonry campus character, significant windows, institutional proportions, a substantial entrance, durable materials, a landscaped setting. Not a generic industrial warehouse.

Possible functional program (TBD)

The functional program may eventually include robotics laboratories, prototype development areas, machine and fabrication shops, high-bay work areas, classrooms, instructional laboratories, faculty or program offices, meeting rooms, collaboration space, demonstration areas, loading and service access, secure areas for equipment and prototypes, and space for outside robotics or technology companies to temporarily work on prototypes, testing, research, or joint projects.

Outside industry participation is a development concept, not a committed partnership - no company is identified or implied to have agreed to participate.

Exact square footage remains TBD. For planning purposes the site plan reserves a substantial portion of the property for this use and for possible future expansion - the building should not be treated as leftover space after housing is sited.

Parking + Movement

Parking and Movement

Parking is one of the major site-planning constraints. The combined program may generate a substantial number of cars from student residents, faculty, staff, robotics students, visitors, industry partners, prototype or service vehicles, and deliveries. No final parking count exists - this page does not show one.

Planning should consider shared parking between uses where schedules allow, compact surface parking, pedestrian connections, safe student walking routes, bicycle access, service access, loading areas separated from residential activity, future structured parking only if economics eventually justify it, and preserving land from being consumed unnecessarily by surface parking.

Phasing

Room to Grow

Phase I - current working case

Two 4-story student housing buildings (~320 beds), the robotics/technical innovation center, required parking and circulation, site infrastructure, landscaping, stormwater, and a preserved expansion area where practical.

Future expansion - possible, not committed

Potential future additions may include a third residential building, robotics building expansion, additional laboratories or industry space, additional parking solutions, and other education or workforce-development uses. None of this is shown as committed construction.

Open Items

What We Still Need to Determine

These gaps are not filled with invented assumptions on this page or elsewhere on the site. See also What Comes Next on the main page for the parallel development-process list (site control, absorption, entitlement, engineering, stakeholders, capital).