Community College of Phila. going residential to attract foreign students

Community College of Philadelphia plans a pair of new residential towers beside its Spring Garden Street campus to accommodate a hoped-for influx of high-achieving - and higher-paying - international students.

The two-year public college has selected Wayne-based Radnor Property Group to develop the roughly 500-unit, 11-story complex at 15th and Hamilton Streets, with plans for a mix of student and nonstudent housing.

CCP joins a small but growing list of community colleges nationwide that are looking abroad for an antidote to sinking enrollments. Key to their plans are on- and near-campus housing for the newcomers, a shift for what historically have been commuter schools.