Cornell officials announced that they have teamed up with real-estate investment company EdR Collegiate Housing and architectural firm Torti Gallas and Partners, Inc. to design a replacement for Maplewood Park Apartments on Tuesday.
The current Maplewood Apartments accommodate graduate and professional students and are set to close in June, according to the University
The new proposal, which is slated to be situated on the same site as Maplewood — 1.2 miles from the Arts Quad and 0.8 miles from Collegetown — will increase bed capacity from the current 350 to between 850 and 950. Whereas Maplewood residents currently possess about 70 vehicle permits, the new proposal will make room for between 400 and 750 vehicles, according to Senior Director of Cornell Real Estate Jeremy Thomas.
While Cornell currently owns and manages the Maplewood property, the proposal would transfer managerial responsibilities to EdR.
“Our goal is to provide something that is going to be in the community for a long time,” said Jeffrey Resetco, a representative from EdR. “We are not a real estate company that comes in and builds something and sells it to someone else. Our intent is to hold, and manage, and operate this facility for a long time.”
At the meeting, a representative from Torti Gallas and Partners emphasized the making housing “a mirror of self.”
“Each unit in a neighborhood must have its own identity, and it has to have special meaning to the person living in it,” the representative said.
Currently, the proposal is under review by the Ithaca government, who is expected to return with a verdict sometime in the fall. If all goes according to plan, the first, new students will be moving in the summer of 2018, according to Thomas.