Reporting from San DiegoReporting from San Diego — Hundreds of San Diego State University students will have a new home for the start of the spring semester, and the neighborhood around the school is moving into a new era.
With the opening of South Campus Plaza on College Avenue, SDSU has its first joint residential/commercial venture to serve students and faculty while also making a stronger connection with the surrounding area.
“We’re trying to create a community good that really is a connection to the larger college area, and basically has this blending of both the students and the neighborhood,” said Eric Hansen, director of the Office of Housing Administration at SDSU.
“We essentially wanted to create a space where it was not just going to be a benefit to the students, but is also going to be a benefit to the faculty, staff and larger neighborhood,” he said.
About 550 freshman are expected to move on Sunday from Tenochca Hall, which will be under renovation for the next several month, and into the two new buildings that make up the plaza at 5140 and 5120 College Ave. The dorms have beds for about 600 students.
The ground-level commercial spaces are still under construction, and tenants waiting to move in are Trader Joe’s, Broken Yolk Café, Epic Wings N Things, Which Wich, Verizon GoWireless and Nectar and Eureka! Three more are in negotiations.
Besides being the first residential/commercial building at SDSU, the plaza also will have the first parking spaces just for the general public.
The 122,000-square-foot parking structure will have space for 300 cars with paid hourly parking and validation from the businesses.
The plaza is the university’s latest step in making a better connection to the neighborhood. In November, the university dedicated the Clay Gateway, a 25-foot tower entrance to the campus at Montezuma Road and Campanile Drive.
Construction on the new halls, formerly called Plaza Linda Verde, began in fall 2014 and cost $143-million, with funding coming from system-wide revenue bonds that will be paid back by retail, housing and parking revenue generated by the project.
During a recent tour of the north building, Hansen pointed out some of the upgrades students will have in their new home, which has a second-floor outdoor patio lined by drought-resistant plants and includes couches, tables shaded by umbrellas and a fire ring.
The ground-floor has a lounge area with a big screen TV perfect for watching Aztec games. Unlike most residential halls that have the bulk of activities on the first floor, however, most accommodations are on the second floor because of the shops on the lower level.
A pool room and television greets students stepping off the elevator on the second floor, which also has a laundry room and student government office. Although each residential room has a microwave and small refrigerator, the second floor also has a kitchen.
“We find a lot of students like to bake their brownies or their mom’s favorite recipe, so this gives them the ability to do that,” Hansen said..
The second floor of each building also has a Residential Learning Community, where students who live in the building take academic or special-interest classes.
Each second floor also has a Students Taking Academic Responsibility room — more commonly call the STAR lounge — with computers, tutors and other resources.
Each floor also has study rooms that are open 24-hours, a dining room and TV lounge.
The living quarters themselves are a little larger than older dorms, but still snug, with most having more than one bed.
Students will pay between $13,000 to $17,000 a year to stay in a room, depending on meal plans and the number of roommates.
Hansen said renovations to the 35-year-old Tenochca Hall should be complete in time for students to move back into the building for the fall semester.
As part of a plan to create more housing for sophomores, freshmen at South Campus Plaza eventually will move to a new hall planned for the west end of the campus. Hansen said the university hopes to create housing for all non-local students by 2019.
Out of 4,700 beds now available, 3,600 are reserved for freshmen.
videogary.warth@sduniontribune.com
760-529-4939
