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ABOR approves lease of 3 area apartment complexes

Residence Life will target sophomores to live in three apartment complexes the Arizona Board of Regents approved the university to lease Friday.

About 240 University of Arizona students will be able to live at Sky View Apartments, 1050 E. Eighth St., and 192 students will be able to reside at Palm Shadows Apartments, 1815 E. Speedway Blvd.

The UA already leases 77 Palm Shadows apartments for student housing. ABOR also approved the UA to continue its decade-long lease at Corleone Apartments, 1330 N. Park Ave.

"We believe this is a way to better manage our housing crunch as interim solution," said Saundra Taylor, UA vice president of Campus Life.

Taylor said the apartments will be marketed to sophomores because they will provide independence and more living space.

"Our sophomores want to continue in our system," Taylor said.

About 4,100 freshmen and 1,200 sophomores have committed to live in the UA's residence hall system in fall 2000, Taylor said. About 400 freshmen were on a waiting list last year to live in a residence hall, she added.

Regent Judy Gignac said she wanted students who currently live in Sky View Apartments to have a place to live when UA students move into the complex that will now become part of the Department of Residence Life.

Taylor said those students will be able to move into four other apartment complexes that the Sky View apartment management owns.

"I just don't want to see somebody out on the street because we've got young students," Gignac said.

Cisco Aguilar, UA Associated Students president, said the three leased apartment complexes will provide benefits - such as more privacy and independence - to students than living in an on-campus residence hall.

"I think it is great because it increases the availability of residence halls to students," Aguilar said.

He said two new dorms set to be built by fall 2003 will provide a long-term solution to UA's on-campus housing shortage. The two dorms, which will be near La Paz Residence Hall, are expected to house 700 undergraduates.

ABOR President Hank Amos said he was supportive of the proposal because it increased the availability of housing for UA students and was also beneficial to area neighbors.

"It's better for the community and surrounding neighborhood to have the university involved because they can enforce polices," Amos said.

The three apartments will be subject to Department of Residence Life policies.

Dean of Students Melissa Vito said the UA expects to lease the apartments for "a couple of years" until the two new residence halls can sustain the UA's needs.

"As soon as those get built that should take away the need to continue leasing the apartments," Vito said.

The apartments' rental rates have yet to be set.

Vito said the UA will set the rental rate at the next ABOR meeting - Apr. 6 and 7 at Northern Arizona University.

"We are committed to keeping the apartments as self-sustainable as possible," Vito said.