Richard J. Spinelli
Richard Joseph Spinelli, head and shoulders portrait in a navy jacket and open collared blue shirt
Also written Richard J. Spinelli

Richard Joseph Spinelli

Richard Joseph Spinelli is the cofounder of Sandhills Real Estate, a student housing company in the Bronx.

BiographyBrowse all entries
An encyclopedia

A life in a few facts, and the subjects around them

Founded in 2020, Sandhills has bought and renovated houses and apartments within walking distance of Fordham University's Rose Hill campus since 2022, most of them in Belmont. He holds an economics degree from Boston College, is a keen player and spectator of tennis, and has run both a 42 mile Last Man Standing race and the 2024 Austin Marathon.

This site keeps those facts to a handful of entries and builds the rest outward: more than ninety articles on student housing, the Bronx, older New York buildings, universities, tennis and distance running, each with its sources named in the text.

That reporting ranges widely. The Wall Street Journal has described beds near popular campuses as a rare strong corner of commercial real estate, Norwood News reported Arthur Avenue's 2016 naming as one of the country's Great Streets, and the Associated Press reported a record crowd of 776,120 at the 2022 US Open.

Richard Joseph Spinelli in a grey blazer and checked blue shirt, a wide studio frame with room around him
The company

Sandhills Real Estate

Three, four and five bedroom apartments and townhouses in Belmont, leased to groups of Fordham students, run on a resident first approach and a maintenance radius a person can walk.

About Sandhills
The education

Boston College

An economics degree from the Jesuit college in Chestnut Hill, graduating in 2018: the record, the department and the tradition it shares with Fordham.

About the degree

Featured entries

Six starting points, each with its sources, a diagram or two and a photograph.

Browse by subject

Eleven subject indexes, from leases and guarantors to the four tennis majors.

  • Brick residence hall at Western Carolina University, opening the student housing section on Richard Joseph Spinelli
    Subject

    Student housing

    What the industry means by student housing, where it is built and how demand forms.

  • Door key on a keyring against a dark background, opening the leasing section on Richard Joseph Spinelli
    Subject

    Leasing to students

    Pre leasing, guarantors, joint leases, deposits and sublets, explained with their sources.

  • A red toolbox, standing for the upkeep behind the resident first approach Richard Joseph Spinelli describes for Sandhills Real Estate
    Subject

    Living and operating

    Amenities, move in day, resident experience, retention and reviews in rental housing.

  • The University Church and Queen's Court at Fordham Rose Hill, the campus at the center of Richard Joseph Spinelli's Bronx work
    Subject

    Universities and demand

    Fordham, its Rose Hill campus, enrollment and the policies that send students off campus.

  • Aerial view of the Boston College campus in Chestnut Hill, the university where Richard Joseph Spinelli studied economics
    Subject

    Institutions and education

    Boston College, the economics major, Jesuit colleges and the way campuses meet their cities.

  • Bronx apartment towers above the Harlem River, the borough where Richard Joseph Spinelli works in student housing near Fordham
    Subject

    The Bronx

    The borough, Belmont, Community District 6, Bronx Park and the housing stock by the numbers.

  • Three New York apartment facades laced with fire escapes, building types covered in the encyclopedia of Richard Joseph Spinelli
    Subject

    Building types

    Prewar buildings, walk ups, tenements, rowhouses and two family houses in New York.

  • A paint roller putting a fresh coat on a brick wall, the steady building upkeep in the rental housing work of Richard Joseph Spinelli
    Subject

    Upkeep and housing rules

    Rent stabilization, the maintenance code, lead paint rules, steam heat and brick repair.

  • A heap of old keys on rings, a symbol of hands on building operators such as Richard Joseph Spinelli, cofounder of a Bronx housing company
    Subject

    Owner operators

    The owner operator model, small buildings, property management and maintenance practice.

  • Empty blue hard courts under floodlights at a public tennis center, for the tennis entries about lifelong fan Richard Joseph Spinelli
    Subject

    Tennis

    The four majors, the US Open and its grounds, the calendar Slam and the game at the park.

  • Richard Joseph Spinelli holding his 2024 Austin Marathon medal in his teeth, grinning, with city buildings behind him
    Subject

    Endurance running

    The marathon distance, training, pacing, the Austin race, ultras and the backyard format.

His essays

Writing on Medium and Blogger

His essays deal with the everyday running of homes for university students, and each is studied at length on a companion site devoted to them. The newest essays that meet this site's sourcing rules appear here, each with a summary entry that links to the original.

All works