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Originally Posted by davericard
Student Housing I don't know. It' does have retail and office space. The first building is 255,000 sq ft w/ 161 units and underground parking
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This was an earlier article which gave some additional details and some of the thought process for the Alpine Village project.
BYU housing dooms 'turtle'
By Tad Walch
Deseret Morning News
PROVO — The sky is falling on Chicken Little in theaters everywhere, and now the end is near for the Ream's Turtle on Freedom Boulevard.
Stuart Johnson, Deseret Morning NewsThe Reams "turtle" has stood at 200 West near 1400 North in Provo since 1961 but will soon be replaced by apartments housing BYU students. A Provo landmark because of its tortoise-shell shape, the former skating rink and Ream's grocery store may be demolished by the middle of the month after the City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve a new housing development exclusively for Brigham Young University students.
The Alpine Village will include more than 160 four-bedroom condominiums and a number of shops on the corner of Freedom Boulevard (200 West) and Paul Ream Avenue (about 1400 North), where the silver-domed "Turtle" has been since 1961.
BYU considers Alpine Village part of a pilot program to see how students react to apartment-style housing both on campus and off. Nationally and locally, college students appear increasingly interested in apartments over dorms.
The on-campus portion of the test begins next fall when BYU begins to move single students out of dorms at Deseret Towers and temporarily into apartments at Wyview Park, which previously had been reserved for married students. BYU announced last year that half of the current Wyview tenants must move by July. The remainder must leave by July 2007.
The university hasn't made any decisions about the future of Deseret Towers, but officials are considering renovating the six towers or tearing them down and building a new apartment-style complex for single students. That would allow married students to return to Wyview.
Off campus, BYU has an exclusive contract with Alpine Village to rent or sell solely to BYU students. The experiment, called "chartered housing," gives the university additional control of the living environment beyond what it already enjoys with other off-campus housing complexes because BYU will have the right to veto businesses that apply for commercial space.
"BYU will be allowed to screen our retail so there are no tattoo parlors or tanning parlors, for example," said Gary Otterstrom of Timpanogos West Development and Management.
Otterstrom said developers have obtained demolition permits for the Turtle and two other buildings.
Provo officials like the project because they hope it will create an urban village for 3,000 people living within a quarter-mile of the project. Plans call for more than 11,000 square feet of commercial space, including a small general grocery store like BYU's Creamery on Ninth — without the restaurant.
The project also will include a full-size basketball court, a fitness center, a sand pit for volleyball, a swimming pool, a recreation center and a study hall.
The City Council and city staff have focused on walkable communities for years, and they believe they have succeeded with the Shops at Riverwoods and other projects. Similar developments are under way near the Riverside Golf Course (Trellis on the Green) and across University Avenue from the Riverwoods (The Arbors on the Avenue).
"There are about 3,000 residents in the immediate area who would have retail shops now within a walkable distance," said Jan Yeckes, assistant director of economic development, during Tuesday night's council meeting. "There are major multiple-family projects in the area with little in common. The area is disjointed. This could bring the area together."
BYU welcomed the council's approval.
"We are excited to see the progression in this pilot program to provide chartered housing," university spokeswoman Carri Jenkins said.
Single BYU students must live in university-approved housing, and apartment complexes earn approved status by enforcing BYU's Honor Code.