More Student Housing Planned

The seven-story office building that you see on Clark Ave. and PCH is on its way to becoming student apartments. That will happen through what’s been named an “adaptive reuse project.”

On November 25, the Long Beach City Council approved turning the Park Tower office building into student housing. The construction project at 5150 E. Pacific Coast Highway is expected to be available in early to mid-2026, with construction scheduled to take 15 months and to begin in early 2025.

The work plan includes a student plaza, outdoor fitness park, patios and picnic areas, study rooms and laundromats, as well as a cafeteria and a splash pool. It will have 149 suites, ranging from single-person flats to six-room apartments, altogether capable of accommodating nearly 600 students.

It’s part of efforts to make housing more available to students at Cal State University, Long Beach. It’s also supporting housing efforts to provide access to students all over the city, with one estimate at a total of 76,000 students attending CSULB, Long Beach City College, and Pacific Coast University School of Law.

Where are Students Living Now?

CSULB says that more than 3,000 students moved into residence halls for that campus by the first day of classes on August 25. They moved into the university’s three housing units – Hillside, Parkside, and Beachside villages.

Hillside and Parkside are located on campus, and Beachside Village is located approximately one mile from campus on PCH in between Park Ave. and Clark Ave. Beachside houses almost 700 residents in its Atlantic and Pacific Buildings. 

Another on-campus facility, La Playa Residence Hall, is scheduled to open for students in the fall semester of 2026. Construction began in March 2024. The project will add 424 beds to the campus housing system, with a portion designated as affordable housing, according to CSULB.

The state university reported that at the beginning of the fall semester, it had the largest enrollment in CSULB’s 76-year history. About 42,355 students are enrolled at CSULB this fall as of the start of the semester, up from around 41,000 one year earlier.

“We’ve really balanced our access mission with excellence,” said Vice President of Student Affairs Beth Lesen in a campus news report. “We’ve balanced being a real anchor institution for the community with being a hot destination for people around the state and nationwide.”

What makes up the “hot destination”? According to CSULB that includes: advancing socioeconomic opportunities for students, once again being included among one of the “Best Colleges of America” in Money Magazine, being one of only 27 higher-education institutions nationwide to earn both the Research 2 (R2) and the new Opportunity Colleges and Universities (OCU) designation, and The Beach being highly ranked for social mobility, and consistently the most applied to university in the CSU system.

Some area residents are concerned that while student housing has improved compared to previous years, there are still too many students who would like to live on or near campus, but they can’t find available housing – or afford to live in what’s on the market.

Looking at Housing Resources

As the Beachcomber reported in September 2023, for that fall semester, over 3,200 students applied for on- and off-campus housing – but spots were only granted to the first 600 applicants. The rest were placed on a waiting list where they might hear back or find alternative methods for residency.

Many on the wait list ended up staying at a hotel instead of a dorm room or off-campus apartment. Some of these students weren’t given much time in the process to sort out their living situation, and they had to work hard at finding some type of accommodation.

Recent social media posts and news stories indicate that the wait list is growing longer.

Students are finding apartment and room rentals through Facebook and other listings. Room rentals are usually going for $1,000 to $1,200. It usually means renting a room in a house where one or more of the homeowners are living.

Other students are sharing apartments with one or more fellow renters, usually college students. That can mean a much higher rental rate with $2,500 being typical, and evenly split by each of the renters for a two-to-three bedroom house.

CSULB does offer a few resources for students searching for off-campus rentals on one its webpages called Off-Campus Housing Resources. Off-campus and virtual mixers are coming up in 2026 where students can learn the best areas to look, available rentals, how to find a roommate, and upcoming housing fairs. Links are provided to online listings, Facebook groups, guides on better understanding lease and rental agreements, and other resources.

Jon LeSage is a resident of Long Beach and a veteran business media reporter and editor. You can reach him at jtlesage1@yahoo.com.