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GREENSBORO — The Greater Glenwood Neighborhood Association hosted a meeting Thursday night between neighbors and a developer looking to build student housing in the area.

About 50 people from the neighborhood and surrounding area turned out for a conversation with a representative from the Houston-based Dinerstein Companies, one of the nation’s largest developers of student housing.

The expanding enrollment growth of nearby UNCG has made the Glenwood area a target for development. Though opinion on the venture was mixed, those opposing it were very vocal.

“The goal of the neighborhood right now is to increase home ownership and the number of houses that are owner-occupied,” said Steve Hyatt, 48 , who owns a house on Glenwood Avenue . “What this developer wants to do is come in and just add more rentals. I don’t see the point in that.”

Mark Foraker, Dinerstein’s senior vice president for marketing and sales, said his company wants to acquire 7.5 to 10 acres for a complex of 150 to 180 units with 450 to 550 beds. The company is in talks with 49 property owners in the area, trying to get a large unbroken area for the project.

Such a development could be an economic driver for the area, Foraker said — something Glenwood has been seeking for decades. Evoking the economic impact of student housing on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill,

Foraker told the crowd that businesses would come where they can easily reach students.

“But the beds have to be there before the retail is going to follow,” Foraker said.

That idea didn’t appeal to everyone in the crowd.

“I think you have to look at the quality of life for the people who don’t sell their houses, who will then live next to a big development like this,” said Jane McKinny , a professor at Greensboro College who grew up in Glenwood and still has family living there. “We have a neighborhood plan already, and it’s very viable. It’s made for development, but the kind of development that the residents in the neighborhood want. It’s not this.”

Other neighbors said they’d welcome the development, saying the neighborhood has been sliding downhill for years.

“To me, the development would seem like a plus,” said Willie Cornwell, 37.

Cornwell has owned a house on Oak Street for seven years and said the neighborhood has seen very little development.

“You’ve got areas now that are run down, that have problems with drugs,” Cornwell said. “UNCG is a positive school. It’ll bring positive folks to live in the area. I think that’s better than a bunch of vacant houses.”

Foraker said his company believes a more structured environment catering to college students could help stabilize the neighborhood.

“Right now, there’s very little control over what’s going on over there,” Foraker said. “There are a lot of absentee owners who don’t live there. But with a well-managed property, you can create a better atmosphere.”

Some in the crowd said they were skeptical that Dinerstein would stay involved, fearing the company would sell or leave the complex in the hands of a poorly run management company after a few years.

Foraker said his company’s 55-year track record of building mostly upscale student housing speaks for itself. Dinerstein is a family-owned company, Foraker said, and it usually manages a property for an average of five to 10 years. He said the company doesn’t have a history of its properties falling into disrepair.

Clarence Wright, 52, said the company made a nice pitch, but he wasn’t convinced. The Glenwood neighborhood is one of the city’s oldest planned communities, and Wright said it has been on its way back to being a family area dominated by homeowners.

“You can say that you’re building student housing if you want to make it sound good,” Wright said. “But what they’re really looking to do is build a big apartment building and rent to students. Is that what this neighborhood really wants?”

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