Unfortunately, the owners of Meadow View Village Mobile Home Park plan to redevelop the property. Robert and John Tol of Grand Rapids want to clear the mobile home park at 3400 Stadium Drive, behind Wayside West, and build three high-rise apartment buildings. The 360 units will be designed for students. If they go ahead as planned, I expect there will be a lot more inexpensive trailers for sale at Meadow View.

I wonder if this is a wise time to build student housing in Kalamazoo. Enrollment at WMU is down 15% over the past three years. There was a student housing construction boom about 2000-2003 coinciding with all-time record enrollments that peaked at 29,732 in fall 2002. Enrollment last year (2005-06) was 26,239 and is expected to be lower this year. As a result, there is a glut of student housing on the west side of Kalamazoo.

There has been a lot of development lately in that immediate area of Stadium Drive. Griffin Pest Solutions recently broke ground on a new headquarters at 2700 Stadium Drive. Earlier this year redeveloped sites opened for Bilbo's Pizza and a mini-mall containing Jet's Pizza. Ground is being readied for another strip mall next to Wayside West. J. D. Byrider autos vacated a building now occupied by Orrin B. Hayes used cars.

WMU enrollment figures:

Fall 1991 - 27,901 total

Fall 1997 - 3,341 freshmen
Fall 1998 - 26,575 total, 3,758 freshmen
Fall 1999 - 27,744 total, 4,426 freshmen
Fall 2000 - 28,657 total, 4,543 freshmen
Fall 2001 - 28,931 total, 4,669 freshmen
Fall 2002 - 29,732 total, 4,543 freshmen
Fall 2003 - 29,178 total, 4,333 freshmen
Fall 2004 - 27,829 total, 3,833 freshmen
Fall 2005 - 26,239 total, 3,837 freshmen