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13 GLOs at FL State get housing
Posted on Fri, Apr. 16, 2004
Complex to replace cramped quarters
Heritage Grove will soon have room for 13 student groups
By Aetna Smith
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER
Lambda Chi Alpha's fraternity house - currently home to 17 members - is within walking distance of Florida State University on tree-lined Park Avenue. Cars owned by the fraternity brothers are jammed next to each other in the front yard.
But in August, about 60 Lambda Chi members are expected to move into the fraternity's new home at the $25.5 million Heritage Grove complex on Ocala Road. The new development, set on 37 acres, will accommodate Lambda Chi and up to 12 other student groups in separate residential buildings and clubhouses. And with more than 1,000 spaces, it will have parking to spare.
John Roveda, a 19-year-old Lambda Chi brother, said he's excited about moving to the brand-new digs.
"But I'm going to miss this place - it's become home," he said of the 49-year-old house on Park Avenue that the fraternity has occupied since 1980.
On a recent day, Roveda, a business major, pointed out the bed he made of plywood. Across from his desk was a wood-burning fireplace. Clothing, linen and textbooks littered the floor and couch.
"With the new house, everything's going to be really nice. So I'll try not to mess anything up," he said.
The development, open to any FSU student group, will mainly be home to Greek fraternities. So far, 11 fraternities have signed up to rent or purchase buildings at Heritage Grove.
Groups planning to rent facilities paid a $20,000 deposit, while those that will own their homes - known as equity partners - each invested hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Up to 684 residents will have their own bedrooms and often private bathrooms in their apartment-style buildings. Each group's private chapter house will serve as the main social area.
The land at the Ocala Road complex is owned by the state, but has been leased to the Leon County Educational Facilities Authority. The authority will lease apartment and chapter buildings to up to eight student groups, considered non-equity partners. So far, there are six such partners.
Construction at Heritage Grove started this past fall. Dennis Tribble, president of LLT Corp., said the complex is 50-percent complete. Capstone/LLT is the project's developer.
At the site this week, more than 100 construction workers, contracted by Capstone Building Corp., worked to install red and brown brick on two residential and two chapter-house buildings for rentals. These residential buildings will each have 24 two-bedroom, two-bath apartments. Each apartment will be about 800 square feet.
Workers covered the sandy-colored wood frame of a three-story apartment building with gypsum board. Next, they'll install insulation on the interior walls, said Brandon Loyd, Capstone's assistant project manager.
The five fraternities that will own their buildings have commissioned their own architects and builders. Those houses will look different from the rentals and from one another.
Doug Mannheimer, a local attorney and the Lambda Chi house corporation president, said he and Andy Miller, Seminole Boosters president and house corporation president for Pi Kappa Alpha, first began to consider new fraternity housing about five years ago. Pi Kappa Alpha also will own a home at the new complex.
"We wanted to try to find a way to build frat housing with apartment-style living that would be properly managed and maintained," Mannheimer said. "We wanted Greek housing we could be proud of."
Sororities may not be as interested in relocating to the new development, because their houses are usually better maintained than fraternities, Mannheimer said.
To pay for the development, the Leon County Educational Facility Authority floated $20 million in tax-free bonds and Florida State University provided $4 million for infrastructure and road work. The equity partners put up a total of about $1.5 million, said Bob Kellam, chair of the authority and house corporation president of Tau Kappa Epsilon. Kellam's fraternity will rent its buildings.
Each equity property is valued at about $3.5 million, according to Brian Lambert of Coastal Property Services. Coastal will collect rent and maintain all of the buildings and the grounds, he said.
Lambda Chi's buildings will be valued at about $3.4 million with an additional half a million dollars in furnishings and amenities, Mannheimer said. Currently, only a concrete slab and a gray-colored elevator shaft mark the location of Lambda Chi's new home.
Now, the Lambda Chi brothers on Park Avenue pay about $400 a month in rent at the 13,000-square-foot house.
Mannheimer noted that the new main house will be 38,000 square feet. The apartments will be a mixture of two-bedroom, four-bedroom and one-bedroom designs. The clubhouse will feature a pool table, dining area and apartments for 16 students on the second floor.
The average rental rate for an equity-house resident will be $400 per month. For a non-equity resident it will cost $480, said Lambert of Coastal Property.
Back at the Lambda Chi house, former president John Storey seemed wistful about the move. The brothers were preparing for a big beach party at the house next Friday. They'll move out of the house at the end of the month.
"We're going to miss the fact that we can treat it like a frat house, beat it up and it still looks the same," said Storey, 21. "But it's time to move on. Some of the best fraternities on campus are moving out there. And the ones that don't are going to wish they did."
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