Ivy to be demolished Jan. 2004

Four-month leases for the Ivy Apartments are being offered by the Office of Student Housing in an effort to placate student needs until the building's demolition, set for early Jan. 2004. After the 12-unit Ivy Apartments and its surrounding buildings are torn down, new campus residences are predicted to accommodate up to 500 students.

All leases will be offline as of Dec. 31, according to Dean of Students Susan Boswell. The short-term leases, to begin Sept. 1, will give students the chance to utilize the Ivy apartments up until weeks before construction is set to begin. Also, for students planning to study abroad in the spring of 2004, these leases are a convenient housing opportunity.

Applications for the four-month leases can be obtained by calling the Office of Student Housing. The lease rates have not been calculated at this point but should be available within the next couple of weeks. Annual housing rates for the Ivy have been anywhere from $5,050 to $6,000 in years past.

Construction on the Ivy's site, located at the corner of St. Paul and 33rd streets, was delayed in its initial stages because of existing student leases, and the University's desire to honor those until their expiration. The four-month leases will end on Dec. 19, while all others have until the end of the month.

Up to this point, the Ivy has only been providing housing for a maximum of 48 students. It has 12 fully furnished, four-bedroom apartments, each with two bathrooms, a kitchen and a living room. It has no elevators or recreational facilities, but it does offer Ethernet connections as well as quick access to the 24-hour Royal Farms convenience store.

In Jan. 2004, the Ivy, Royal Farms and the Homewood garage will be torn down to make way for the new campus bookstore as well as campus housing that will be able to accommodate many more students. The development scheme, known as the Charles Village Project, will use this soon-to-be-empty L-shaped lot to build new retail and residential spaces.

Spokesman for the University Dennis O'Shea said that the current structures will be replaced by approximately 40,000 to 42,000 feet of retail space, as well as some parking facilities. This will also be the new location of the University Bookstore. The exact amount of parking is still being worked out.

The new buildings may be multi-person apartments with kitchens or they may be residence halls -- the exact plans are still up in the air at this point.

"They've not defined specifics," said Boswell. However, she estimated the building would be close to eight to 10 stories, and that it would offer many more student residences than the current Ivy Apartment building.

"There will be a significant number of student residences," said Boswell, but she was not sure as to the exact number at this point.

Carol Mohr, the Senior Director of Housing and Dining Services, was unavailable for comment.

"The expectation is that the number of students who will be accommodated will be somewhere in the order of 500," said O'Shea. This will be 10 times the amount of housing that is currently available on that block of Charles Village.

The reconstruction of this site at 33rd and St. Paul Streets is a major step toward the University's future goal of offering housing to all of its students.