WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University trustees on Friday approved a $20.6 million project to build a third luxury dorm tower even though the school has vacancies in the existing towers for the coming semester.
University administrators supported moving ahead with the First Street Towers project, saying that the bid from Hagerman Inc. of Fort Wayne was $5 million less than expected.
"We want to go ahead and build this tower now because we will never have the ability to build it at this price again," Purdue Treasurer Al Diaz told the board's facilities committee on Thursday.
The new tower will include 174 rooms with single air-conditioned rooms with private baths like the towers that opened last year.
Barbara Frazee, Purdue's interim head of housing and food services, said about 40 of the 365 rooms in the towers hadn't yet been leased for the fall semester, even though they've been opened up to freshmen and there isn't enough dorm space available for incoming students wanting to live on campus.
"We currently have a wait list of students waiting to live with us, but they are not willing to take that because it is currently $5,000 above the next price point," Frazee said.
The cost of room and board with a 12-meal weekly plan at First Street Towers is $14,929 for the 2010-11 school year.
Trustee Mamon Powers Jr. of Gary asked how the existing towers could go from having a waiting list last year to empty rooms this year.
Frazee said that while she expected the rooms to be filled by the start of classes in August, the fee level will be reviewed.
"We feel like we have reached a plateau maybe," Frazee said. "We will need to continue to look at that."
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