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GREENSBORO — Mark Lindsey has been busy lately. The commercial broker for High Point’s Skeen Group has been hustling to put together a deal for a student housing development in the Glenwood neighborhood — and do it on a tight deadline.

Within walking distance of UNCG, the neighborhood is ideal for student housing that’s needed as the university continues to grow. But the year-to-year reality of student rentals means any development would have to happen soon.

“There is a sense of urgency on the part of the developer,” Lindsey said. “They really have to be breaking ground by May of 2010 to try to pursue 12-month student leases by the fall of 2011 — and a lot of things have to happen between now and then.”

The first step: the developer — Dinerstein Cos. of Houston — needs 49 property owners in a targeted 10-acre area of Glenwood to sell. Last month the company sent letters to owners, trying to gauge interest. The move caused a flap when some residents objected to the idea of an apartment-style student housing complex. But Lindsey said there has also been a lot of interest.

“Of those 49 owners we’ve heard from all but 14,” he said. “I would say 60 percent of them have said they’re interested in selling. They’ve said 'make me an offer.’ ”

But for a deal to go through all the owners have to sell, Lindsey said — and that’s just the beginning.

From there, the developer would have to have the area rezoned to allow an apartment complex, something that would be easier without strong opposition from the Glenwood Neighborhood Association. The association has been working for years to revitalize the economically depressed area.

“We are going to be meeting with the neighborhood association,” Lindsey said. “I’m sure that some people from the association are angry we haven’t met with them yet. But we were really just seeing if there was interest from the owners first — if there wasn’t, there would be no point in talking to them.”

Facing growing enrollment, UNCG officials have said the university would be interested in a public-private partnership to create an off-campus student neighborhood. But that’s a few years out after the renovation of the campus quad and construction of a new residence hall near Spring Garden and Aycock streets, officials have said.

Dinerstein isn’t interested in partnering with the university, Lindsey said. But it does want to know if residents of the area south of the school are ready for more organized student housing.

“It could be it’s not the time yet,” Lindsey said. “We’re not trying to force anyone to sell or make anyone feel like they have to do anything — we just want to know if the time is right now.”

Lindsey said he’s been spending hours a day on the phone with Glenwood residents — and not just the 49 owners on his list. He said Dinerstein will look at the responses next week and decide whether it would like to call a communitywide meeting on the matter.

“One way or the other it’ll all be over by the end of October,” Lindsey said. “Right now we’re just trying to see which route it’s going to be.”

Contact Joe Killian at 373-7023 or joe.killian@news-record.com