October 14, 2004

Purchase moves student apartments ahead

by Tom Woolf

CARBONDALE, Ill. - - The Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees today (Thursday, Oct. 14) approved the purchase of property adjacent to a planned student apartment complex on the Carbondale campus.

Construction of the 100-unit facility at the northwest corner of Wall Street and Grand Avenue will begin next summer. The adjacent parcel, at 609 S. Wall St., measures 136 feet by 51 feet and includes a small house-like structure. Appraised value of the property is $44,000; the purchase price is $43,900 plus $500 in closing costs. The cost to demolish the 921-square-foot wood frame structure is $7,500.

Funding for this project will come from non-appropriated funds. The Illinois Board of Higher Education also must approve the project.

The 147,000-square-foot apartment complex will be the first new housing built on campus since 1968. When it opens in summer 2006, the $22-million complex will house 400 sophomores, juniors, seniors and graduate students.