New student housing at CSUMB replaces blight, and makes a dent in school’s housing shortage.

One bulldozer at a time, southern Marina continues its transformation. For students at CSU Monterey Bay, one development in particular is likely to reduce the scramble for off-campus housing: the Promontory, a swanky 176-unit dorm that will add 579 beds on campus.

“It filled up very quickly. It was in high demand,” says Christine Erickson, CSUMB’s associate vice president of student affairs.

The amenities at the Promontory, which opens this fall, are enough to make some local renters jealous. Every bedroom has only one bed and its own bathroom, and each apartment comes fully furnished, with a kitchen and no-pay washers and dryers in every unit.

More importantly, it fills a desperate need for CSUMB student housing. Erickson says last year, as many as 350 students were on the housing waitlist.

Still, she says, the school likely won’t be able to provide housing to all the students who want it in the coming year. Officials won’t have a sense of the waitlist length until the application period closes May 8.

The Promontory, built by Southern California-based developer AMCAL, sits at the intersection of 8th Street and Imjin Road on land once home to a Fort Ord maintenance shop, which repaired vehicles and small arms during the Cold War.

“It was huge. It was one of the biggest buildings on Fort Ord,” says Marina Mayor Bruce Delgado. “It cost $1 million just to get rid of it.”

AMCAL demolished the building in 2013. The developer spent an estimated $44 million on the project and will remain as its landlord. The university is in charge of placing students there.

Aside from providing beds to students and making profit for AMCAL, Delgado says, the project will help Marina achieve the feel of a real college town.

“It’s huge for the morale of our town,” Delgado says. “It brings the campus culture that much closer to the rest of Marina.”