The Foundry invited students to eat, drink, and socialize to commemorate the grand opening of their new student housing community last night in Campustown.

The event was held from 5 to 8 p.m. in a temporary leasing space of the new apartments. The permanent residence is currently under construction where the old bookstore was located, across from the Memorial Union.

The event is the first step in reaching out to potential residents of the new housing community in Ames. The Foundry wanted to communicate with students to begin signing leases for the apartments in fall 2015.

“We wanted to make sure we get as interactive as possible with our residents sooner rather than later,” said Shannon Failla, operations specialist for Cardinal Management Group Inc.

Many students attended the event. It welcomed students with a live DJ, free food and drink and many raffle prizes such as a GoPro, FitBit, Beats headphones and an iPod Shuffle.

Andrew Lemus, a senior in construction engineering, said he saw where the buildings were going up and wanted to get a better idea of what the apartments would look like.

Jessica and Megan Brunssen, sophomores in graphic design and animal science respectively, said they would potentially be interested in the apartments.

“It looks nice, and it will be brand new. It’s close to campus and [it has] a lot of nice things,” Jessica said.

With the growing amount of students at Iowa State, The Foundry hopes to bring a new experience to the students living in Ames.

“This campus just has so much livelihood, and it was just a place that we really wanted to become a part of,” Failla said. “We wanted to bring both The Opus Group and Cardinal together to tag team and bring this market something that they haven’t seen before.”

The Foundry will be more than just student housing, she said. The community will include many amenities such as the personal training system Well Beats, a fitness center, bike storage, a heated parking garage, a tanning room and retail space.

“We want our community to be the place all the students call home,” said Failla.

The fully furnished apartments will range from two bedroom apartments for $825 to $885 and four bedroom for $775 per month per person. Other pricing options are available as well.