Groundbreaking set Monday for 162-bed apartment complex at Rayen, Fifth avenues

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Ground will be broken Monday for a privately-owned 162-bed student apartment complex on Youngstown State University-owned land along Rayen Avenue.

The $7.8 million, four-story building is being developed by Hallmark Campus Communities of Columbus. YSU trustees earlier this year authorized the company to develop the complex.

Groundbreaking is set for 11 a.m. at the building site. It’s expected to open in fall 2016.

“I think it’s definitely positive,” said Carole Weimer, YSU trustees chairwoman. “More housing on campus means more residential students. We’re recruiting more students from a broader geographic region than we have in the past.”

That means more students who need housing, she said.

Having a private company develop student housing on university properties is a normal growth pattern across the state, the chairwoman said.

“It will give us a presence on one end of campus where we don’t have any and hopefully it will lead into some other development,” she said.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.