news
Student housing debuts
Regency will open Aug. 29
By Boyd Fletcher
fletchar@mscd.edu
As students on the Auraria campus prepare to start the new semester in the classroom, some are finding themselves preparing for a new semester in the first student housing ever available for Auraria campus students.
Photos by Leah Bluntschli bluntsch@mscd.edu
Construction workers look out the top floor windows of the former Regency Hotel, now student housing slated to open to student residents Aug. 29.
The once beat-up Regency Hotel has been transformed over the past few months into a retro-colored, modernized, student-housing community that will open to students Aug. 29.
The first phase of the Regency, which includes the opening of 180 renovated dormitory-style rooms in the tower, recreation areas, an athletic center, and a dining area, said Carmen Lerma-Mendoza, director of marketing and public relations for The Regency Student Housing Community.
"We refer to this project as a community because that is what we want to build-a sense of community that a tradional campus would have," Lerma-Mendoza said.
Students from Metro, UCD and CCD are welcome to live at the Regency. Prices for the furnished rooms range from $450 per month for a two-bed shared unit, to more than $900 per month for a single unit. Those costs include utilities, cable and high-speed Internet.
Lerma-Mendoza said at least 150 leases have been accepted for the first phase of the project, which opens with 306 beds.
"We are not at capacity yet, but we are "We are not at capacity yet, but we are definitely expecting to be over half full," she said.
The second phase of the Regency is expected to open in January, with an additional 300 beds in the second wing of the renovated hotel, as well as the completion of the swimming pool area.
In the full dining area students will be required to choose a meal plan ranging from 19 meals per week to a daily, or pay-as-you-go, plan.
Two other student housing projects are also under construction to be ready by next fall.
Ground broke this summer at the former Atlas Metals site on the northwest side of campus for the Campus Village Apartments, a student housing project that will create an apartment-styled community with 685 beds in 230 units.
Apartments will be available not just to students, but to the faculty and staff of all three institutions. The University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center will require all full-time freshmen who reside outside a 50-mile radius of the school to live at the Campus Village Apartments.
The apartments are on schedule to open next August, according to Dick Taft, project manager for developer Urban Ventures LLC.
The building will consist of four main wings, sits between railroad tracks to the west, light rail tracks to the east and stands under the shadow of the Auraria Parkway bridge that crosses I-25. The Invesco Field light rail station is just north of the complex, providing easy access for students.
Photos by Leah Bluntschli bluntsch@mscd.edu
A construction worker finishes the wood framing on the Campus Village Apartments, a student housing complex set to open by next fall.
The third student housing project, also to open by next August, will be dubbed The Inn at Auraria and will be located in the upper 14 floors of the Executive Tower Inn at 1405 Curtis St.
The rooms are now being converted from offices to dorm-style rooms that will hold 493 beds for students at Auraria.
The project is being led by the Auraria Foundation, a non-profit organization separate from AHEC, which is overseeing the development of the Executive Tower Inn. When completed, American Campus Communities will manage the project.
When The Inn opens next year, the building will continue to be operated as a hotel with partially shared security services as well as an optional maid service for students.
The project, which is strictly for students on the Auraria campus, is being privately funded and has no direct affiliation with any of the three schools on campus. However, any extra revenue will flow back to the Auraria campus through the Auraria Foundation-a non-profit organization separate from the Auraria Higher Education Center, which is overseeing the project's development.
The rates for standard rooms will range from $450 to $650 per month, and will include all utilities. Standard rooms will be four single bedrooms, each individually keyed, with two bedrooms sharing a bathroom, living room and a small kitchen.
All three housing projects, when completed, will total close to 2,000 beds for students at the three schools.
