A new apartment complex in the Campustown area will cater to what older students want, said an Ames property manager, although an ISU Department of Residence official said the new choices won’t affect on-campus living.

Real Estate Services Group is building a new 57-unit apartment complex called Chamberlain Lofts, 2519 Chamberlain St.

Although Chamberlain Lofts is being built just a block south of Friley Hall, it will not affect ISU housing occupancy, and neither has any other off-campus housing, said John Shertzer, residence life coordinator for the Department of Residence.

“Occupancy rates on campus ride the wave of enrollment,” Shertzer said.

“We have higher or lower occupancy as we have higher or lower enrollment. We don’t know that off-campus options affect us that much at all.”

Dean Jensen, president of Real Estate Services Group, said the complex will cater mostly to students, although he said he expects some recently graduated professionals who still want to be a part of the Campustown atmosphere to live there too.

“The lofts will try to provide a flexible design,” Jensen said.

“The floor plans allows for movable walls and configurable closets, bookshelves and study areas.”

Each unit will have a kitchen, bath and open areas on two levels that can be arranged to tenants’ tastes, Jensen said.

“Design students will really like them,” Jensen said, “People who think and act creatively will like this space.”

The estimated cost per person for the two- and three-person units will range from $322 to $545 per month including utilities, depending on the number of occupants and size of apartment.

On-campus occupancy is not affected by off-campus housing options because occupancy rates are related to freshman enrollment at Iowa State, Shertzer said. The majority of students living on campus, particularly in Richardson Court and Union Drive housing associations, are first-year students.

According to fall 2003 enrollment data, 89.3 percent of first-year students choose to live on campus. That number is unlikely to change with new off-campus housing availability, Sherzter said.

The Department of Residence does market to upperclassmen, Shertzer said, offering its own apartment-style housing at Frederiksen Court. To better meet demand for on-campus housing of upperclassmen, Buchanan Hall will reopen with units for students 21 and over in the fall of 2004, he said.

Recent changes in the makeup of campus housing, such as the demolition of Westgate Hall and the decision to close Barton Hall for the 2004-2005 school year, were not inspired by off-campus pressures, he said.

Barton Hall’s closure was in response to projected enrollment numbers, Shertzer said. The Westgate Hall demolition and planned demolition of Storms, Helser and Knapp Halls are part of the Department of Residence’s Master Plan, said Darryl Knight, associate director for facilities for the Department of Residence.

The Master Plan also calls for the construction of two new suite-style residence halls, one currently under construction, and one that will be built after Helser’s demolition in 2008.

“The change from dorm to suite-style housing is in response to the demands and desires of first-year students,” Shertzer said.