Rixey Becomes Placemakr Marymount Ballston

Written by: Sofi Plotkin
Photography: Marymount University Website

Marymount’s Ballston student apartment building, formerly known as the Rixey, has become a hotel and rental property which school officials said would support an undergraduate hospitality minor. Marymount partnered with housing business Placemakr, which will provide students with real-world experience in hospitality, university officials said.

The College of Business, Innovation, Leadership, and Technology (BILT) has proposed a 15-credit minor in hospitality and innovation with curriculum including hospitality management and event management courses. Previously undergraduates, from sophomores to seniors, lived at the Rixey. Only seniors may apply for housing at the renamed Placemakr Marymount Ballston (PMB), depending on availability, university officials said.

Adrienne Chatman, director of administration and program management for PMB, said “undergraduates are more successful when they are on the main campus and able to engage with other undergraduate students and closer to their classes,” which contributed to the change. Chatman said, “we were successfully able to accommodate every senior that applied.” PMB is located on the same block as Marymount’s satellite campus in Ballston with quick access to the metro. With no resident assistants to manage undergraduate students, and only older and long-term residents being housed, PMB is curating a “respectful environment and upscale environment,” Chatman said.

Students who are parents or married, or live with relatives near campus, are exempt from the university’s four-year housing requirements for its 2,606 undergraduates. Chatman said the shift aligns with Marymount’s goal of providing “graduate students, who we know are older, with suitable housing options,” after an “increase in graduate student enrollment.”

Marymount already offers a graduate certificate of hospitality and innovation. Dr. Soumya Sivakumar, dean of BILT, said students in the hospitality innovation minor track will use the hotel “in the form of a course project or even a formal internship.”

“The hope is that we will start in the fall of 2024,” Sivakumar said. She said the offering is based on market research because “we want to make sure there is market demand for a student who graduates from that program.”

Placemakr offers leasing and hotel stays plus Marymount’s student housing and 11 low-income housing units. Chatman said, “Safety of our students has always been a top priority.” Chatman said hotel guests are only allowed to access the floor on which they rented a room, and no student units are located on floors with hotel guests.

Eva Roros, a senior, lived at the Rixey last year. “I liked it a lot,” Roros said. “It’s important for younger people to experience an independent living situation like that.”