Where there’s a demand, there’s a supply.

At the University of Central Florida, the demand so happens to be resort-style living at relatively affordable prices, and the supply is courtesy of Landmark Properties’ Retreat at Orlando, who have gone from being a laughingstock to serious money makers. Now, other developers are copying their college student living community idea. Will it spread across the nation?

Mary Shanklin of the Orlando Sentinel has the story:

Gated subdivision for college students offers resort-style amenities

Orlando’s first neighborhood of houses built for college students is about to open, and it comes complete with complimentary Starbucks coffee, tanning beds and swim-up movies at the beach-style pool.

Landmark Properties’ Retreat at Orlando, a gated subdivision on East Colonial Drive, has hundreds of two-story Craftsman-style cottages intended just for students.

Although most of the new midrise apartments and towers built near the University of Central Florida in recent years have advertised their proximity to classes, the Retreat instead pushes backyard grilling, recreation and room for pets on its 40-acre site.

Behind the mom-‘n’-pop-style homes, the Retreat has amenities that are anything but suburban: a PGA-level indoor golf-simulation room; a covered basketball pavilion; a salon offering manicures and pedicures; and shuttle buses to and from hot spots till 3 a.m. on weekends.

“I like living on campus, but I’m ready for the feeling of being in a home,” said UCF junior Gabriella Armor, 19, who will be moving from an on-campus apartment to the Retreat next month. She said friends at Florida State University had sent her Instagram photos of the Retreat at Tallahassee, and she was ready for the idea to come to Orlando.