Landmark delivers 1,261-bed USC community, built in-house

Landmark Properties has opened The Standard at Los Angeles, a 429-unit, 1,261-bed student housing community at 3900 South Figueroa St., three-tenths of a mile from the University of Southern California and the private developer’s second ground-up project in the city, according to Connect CRE. The eight-story building, designed by HED, was delivered by Landmark Construction, the firm’s own building arm rather than a hired general contractor.

The August delivery rounds out a build-up that began in 2025, when Landmark opened its first Los Angeles development, The Mark near UCLA, and acquired Icon Plaza and West 27th Place, both of which serve USC students. With The Standard open, the firm now holds three properties in USC’s orbit — one built from the ground up, two bought — and a Los Angeles footprint that touches the city’s two major universities. At 429 units and 1,261 beds, the new building works out to roughly three beds a unit, a density aimed at shared rooms.

“We’re excited to open doors at The Standard at Los Angeles and welcome our first residents to our community — just steps from USC’s campus, BMO Stadium and Memorial Coliseum,” said Jason Doornbos, Landmark’s chief development officer. “The Standard’s market-leading amenities, design, and luxury unit finishes set a new benchmark for student housing near USC, and this delivery reflects the caliber our team consistently delivers at Landmark.”

Landmark Construction is the developer’s own arm, and that matters because a developer building with its own crews controls the delivery calendar — no third-party schedule to slip, no construction margin paid out the door. In student housing the calendar is most of the trade: rents follow the academic year rather than a closing date, so a project that misses its August handover forfeits a full year of lease-up. Opening on beat removes the biggest timing risk from the underwrite before the first lease is signed.

The delivery strategy is concentration: Landmark is building and buying around the same campus in the same cycle, betting that density beats geographic spread in a sub-market it can dominate, and deploying capital into ground-up construction and acquisitions on the same doorsteps at once. The bet pays only if The Standard’s 1,261 beds rent at the levels the firm underwrote, and the first lease-up report a few weeks into the semester will deliver the verdict; if the beds fill, the build-and-buy playbook becomes the template for the next campus.