After months of renovations and construction, an Uptown building is ready to serve as a home to multiple programs and students.
The building, which formerly housed the Woolworth store, will now serve as the permanent and temporary residence for several schools within the university, said Donna Goss, director of Engagement and Real Estate Management for OU.
It will serve as a temporary space for displaced programs in the College of Arts and Sciences, Scripps College of Communications and University College. The space will also serve as a long-term location for the College of Fine Arts: Film and Interdisciplinary Arts, Goss said in an email.
The newly renovated Skyview Apartments above Woolworth will also be available to students through Residential Housing, Goss said.
According to Jneanne Hacker, associate director for Residential Housing, the apartments come furnished or unfurnished at the request of the students, with the leases running through May 5 of thefollowing year.
“They have all the amenities that anyone could want in an apartment,” Hacker said.
The university signed a five-year lease to the property with The Gilee Group, LLC, which owns the building. The lease began July 23, 2012, according to records obtained by The Post.
The apartments range from $2,650 per semester to $2,850 per semester, requiring three payments, Hacker said.
OU funded the renovations with bond funds; they cost about $4 million, Goss said.
Students live in the apartments now, but next year’s residents will be the first to sign a lease through Residential Housing, Hacker said.
“Students must demonstrate two years of attending a university to be eligible to live in the apartments,” Hacker added, which is a university requirement to live off campus.
The rental income the apartments generate will support the cost of leasing the building from The Gilee Group, Goss said in the email.
“I chose Skyview because it is really convenient and one of the nicer places to live here at OU,” said Joey Rosen, a sophomore studying sports administration who will be living at Skyview next year. “I had to go through a whole application process through Residential Housing and was then informed I got the room I wanted.”
Hacker said demand for the apartments has been very high, adding that Residential Housing was receiving calls from students for the space before they even started advertising.
“The apartments have all the bells and whistles, and there will be a building manager who lives on-site starting in the summer to resolve any issues,” Hacker added.
jr200009@ohiou.edu
