A student housing project at Roosevelt and Fourth streets in downtown Phoenix began construction Tuesday.
The unnamed housing project will generally be for ASU Downtown campus, UA College of Medicine and Phoenix Biomedical Campus students as well as other young adults.
The project will be comprised of two buildings containing approximately 325 apartments and will be accompanied by a parking garage with more than 400 parking spaces.
The building will cost $52 million and is scheduled to be completed July 2013 in time for the fall semester.
Scottsdale-based Concord Eastridge and national collegiate housing developer EdR partnered to develop the project.
Concord Eastridge Senior Vice President Steve Schnoor said the developers had been working for almost a year to make the project a reality.
“We think this is a great neighborhood (and) it's really a very active and vibrant community,” Schnoor said. “The genesis of our project was really the lack of housing in downtown Phoenix.”
He said the building would aid in the development of the downtown Phoenix community.
“I think that it's critical for any city to have a vibrant, active core,” Schnoor said.
ASU alumna and Concord Eastridge Chief Executive Officer Susan Eastridge said the project will not only benefit the Phoenix community but will help the ASU Downtown community expand with a greater residential presence.
“It will a good long-term support for ASU Downtown,” Eastridge said.
She said she is proud to see ASU become a multi-campus university as well as a strong research institution since her time as a student.
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton said the project would provide a strengthened Phoenix core and the option of an urban lifestyle for students and young adults.
“The success of the downtown is about people and bringing life and energy to the city,” Stanton said.
He said the apartments could also bring more degree-seeking students to Phoenix institutions such as ASU Downtown and the Phoenix Biomedical Campus.
Dietetics senior Brooke Vladic said she wanted to see more student-oriented housing in the downtown Phoenix area.
"If they simply added more apartments that would be really nice," Vladic said. "It would bring more students (to Phoenix)."
Dietetics senior Elizabeth Schneider said more housing for upper division students would promote a stronger student life aspect in downtown Phoenix.
"The only (housing) I know that is available would be the dorms for the younger students," Schneider said. "So it would be nice if there were either houses or apartments or other living arrangements other than dorms that would be for older kids, not just freshmen."
She said the level of commuting students would decrease and residential students would increase with the addition of more housing options.
"Because some students commute now, students are only here for classes and then they go home," Schneider said. "More people (downtown) would give it more of a student feel."
Reach the reporter at dgrobmei@asu.edu
