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CORVALLIS - Construction on a $16 million renovation of the College Inn at Oregon State University will begin in mid-May, a project that will transform the vacant seven-story structure into an apartment complex for upper division and graduate students.

Funding for the project will be paid entirely by a private development team.

OSU officials say this is the first agreement of its kind between an Oregon University System housing facility and private development team. Oregon State is working with College Housing Northwest Corvallis and three other companies - Lorig Associates, Mahlum Architects, and Walsh Construction. The private companies will coordinate the design and renovation of the hall, then manage the facility for the next 35 years, at which point it will revert back to OSU management.

"This is an opportunity for us to renovate a building that we could not otherwise afford to do at this time," said Tom Scheuermann, director of OSU's University Housing and Dining Services.

UHDS is an auxiliary unit and receives no general or state funds, so all of the money needed for OSU on-campus housing - including deferred maintenance and capital renewal - must come from user fees, Scheuermann pointed out. The private funding of the project will enable the university to bring back into service a facility that has been closed for three years.

The College Inn - which will have a new name - was built in 1966 and operated until 2002, when it was shut down because of deterioration, according to Eric Hansen, assistant director of University Housing and Dining Services. The old facility had a capacity for 405 students, but was more of a traditional "dormitory." Following renovation, the facility will house about 246 students - mostly studio apartments.

"We conducted a campus-wide survey and the need for this kind of a facility is there," Hansen said. "Corvallis has few studio apartments and the university doesn't have a great deal of on-campus housing that is specifically targeted toward upper-division and graduate students. As a result, we only have about 30 grad students in our residence halls and a few more in family housing.

"As a university, we are trying to increase our graduate student enrollment, and when students come in from out of state, they don't always know many other students and they often have trouble trying to find a vacant apartment," Hansen pointed out. "This should be a great fit."

The facility should be open to residents by late spring/early summer of 2006, Hansen said.