Plans for the first student housing facility on the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus have been approved by the Florida Board of Governors.
The university says that it will break ground in the coming months on a multi-story, 100,000-square-foot housing/student center. When the complex opens in 2024, as many as 200 students will be able to live on the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus. Construction is expected to cost about $39 million.
“The new housing and student center is crucial to supporting the growth of the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus,” University President Rhea Law says.
The new building will have two parts. The student center, with 32,000 square feet on the ground floor, will have a new bookstore and spaces for dining, lounges and meeting rooms. Student housing, with 68,000 square feet on the upper floors, will consist of 70 double-occupancy bedrooms and 60 single-occupancy bedrooms in one-bedroom, two-bedroom and four-bedroom apartment-style configurations, with shared bathrooms, living spaces and kitchens or kitchenettes.
A recent consultant’s study found that for many students, living on campus would be more affordable than many off-campus options in the Sarasota-Manatee area, one of the more expensive rental markets of similar size in the country. This fall, more students than ever before are living on University of South Florida campuses in Tampa and St. Petersburg.
The student center/housing complex represents half of the expansion plans that promise to almost triple the size of the Sarasota-Manatee campus. Earlier this year, the state approved plans for a 75,000-square-foot Nursing/STEM building.
The proposed $62 million academic building would double the size of the campus’s nursing program.
