BY DANIEL SCHMIDT
THE OBSERVER
AUBURN — A massive new student housing development rising in the heart of downtown Auburn officially began its race to the finish line with a groundbreaking ceremony on April 15, as the initial site prep came to a close.
Athens, Georgia-based Landmark Properties officially broke ground on The Mark Auburn, located at 141 Wright St., and marked the occasion with a $10,000 donation to the Hudson Family Foundation.
Once complete, The Mark will feature 825 beds across 329 units, with floor plans ranging from studios to five-bedroom apartments.
The 3.29-acre site will include 31,000 square feet of amenities, including a clubhouse, rooftop pool, Jumbotron, grilling areas and fire pits, fitness center, sports simulator and a study lounge with a café and computer labs.
The property will also provide on-site parking for 853 vehicles, along with bike and scooter storage.
While the developers were unable to provide a specific completion date, The Mark is anticipated to open ahead of the Fall 2028 semester.
Eric Leath, senior director of development at Landmark Properties, said the project has been in motion well before its visible signs of progress.
“A lot of people don’t appreciate how much work has to go into building a project before you actually see a project come out of the ground,” Leath said. “We had a lot of utility infrastructure that had to be both relocated and protected. That work is done. We’ve got foundations going in now and concrete getting poured, and you’re finally starting to see the actual building come out of the ground.”
The Mark is Landmark’s second project in the city, following The Standard, which the firm continues to manage. That property is part of Landmark’s reported $15 billion portfolio that includes more than 115 residential developments and 74,000 beds across the United States.
“This is a market we’re already invested in and tracking,” Leath said. “The Standard has been very successful for us, both on the residential side and on the retail component. We’d been almost anxious to do another project here. We still think Auburn fundamentally has a housing shortage as a community, and it just makes all the sense in the world to put additional housing in this location that’s directly pedestrian to downtown and the university.”
Because of stormwater infrastructure running through the site, The Mark will consist of two separate buildings, with the building fronting Wright Street featuring a commercial component.
Looking ahead, Leath said the company sees continued opportunity in the area.
“I think we view the long-term prospects of Auburn very positively,” Leath said. There’s demographic growth in the area, both in the town organically and through Auburn University. And so we would love to do another project here.”
Landmark also marked the occasion by presenting a $10,000 check to the Hudson Family Foundation, which serves children and families across Alabama and Georgia through financial grants, college scholarships and literacy programs.
The partnership between Landmark and the Hudson Foundation traces back to a longtime local connection. Hudson said she and her husband, former MLB pitcher Tim Hudson, have known Auburn developer Steve Fleming for years, and that Fleming had worked with Landmark before this project.
When a member of Landmark’s executive team mentioned the firm’s practice of pairing each new development with a local nonprofit, Fleming pointed him toward the Hudsons, and the response was immediate.
She said the fit felt right from the outset and that the donation translates directly into the programming the foundation has built over the years.
“Money is so valuable, and any donation matters, but when it’s something of that magnitude, it’s incredibly important to our work,” Hudson said. “We have one-time, $3,000 scholarships — it’s about $60,000 to do our scholarship program every year. And we do a program called our Legends program, where we give $100 gift cards to 1,200 elementary school children during Thanksgiving. That’s $120,000. You have to raise a lot of money.”
Hudson added that the chance to add a partnership with an organization like Landmark to its list of established supporters was too good to pass up.
“It’s an honor to have the same supporters year after year, because that means they believe in what you’re doing,” Hudson said. “But I love meeting new people and sharing the foundation with them. You never know — it’s just another open door to other relationships. The more money you raise, the more things you can do.”
After spending 17 years helping to operate the foundation, Hudson said she knows exactly how she’s going to put the influx of cash to use.
“I can envision exactly where it’s going to go and what it’s going to do,” Hudson said. “I love telling people that this money isn’t just going to sit in a pot. This would buy 100 gift cards, or fund over three scholarships. It’s neat to be able to tell people what their investment in us is going to do.”
