Mayflower Residence Hall off the market, will again house students at reduced cost

Mayflower Residence Hall is off the market and will once again house University of Iowa students thanks to higher-than-expected enrollment.

The school listed the property for sale last summer at a price tag of $45 million and indicated that this spring semester could be its last.

Online listings confirm that the property was taken off the market earlier this year, and a recent report to the State Board of Regents indicates that the university plans to use Mayflower through at least the 2028-29 academic year.

In February, the UI announced that Mayflower would stay open through at least the 2024-25 academic year as the university attempted to balance an influx of students, high demand for first-year housing and interest from returning students.

A university spokesperson confirmed in February that selling the 56-year-old building was contingent on students being allowed to live there through the 2024-25 school year.

The listing was removed from online realtor sites a few weeks later.

Mayflower Residence Hall opened in 1968 as an apartment building and was first partially leased in 1979 before being fully acquired by the University of Iowa in 1982.

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Some Mayflower rooms available at a discounted rate

For the 2024-25 academic year, students can rent a double room at Mayflower — a four-person suite — at a discounted rate. The Regents recently approved a $560 discount on a Mayflower double room, cutting the per-semester cost by 6.5%.

Mayflower offers a few unique amenities not often found in other University of Iowa residence halls.

Rooms feature a small kitchen outfitted with a gas stove, sink, fridge and a small dining room table. Each room is also "suite-style," meaning students have an in-unit bathroom, shower and two sinks.

Across campus, residence hall rates, including single rooms or two-person suites at Mayflower, were increased by 4.9%.

From February: The University of Iowa's Mayflower dorm will stay open to accommodate large numbers

UI expecting full occupancy

The UI's February report to the Regents indicated that student housing could be limited coming years.

For the 2023-24 academic year, occupancy was at 97.9%, with just 138 unoccupied rooms of the 6,553 available. Students are expected to use every one of the 6,465 rooms available every year for the next five through the 2028-2029 academic year.

Mayflower can host more than 1,000 students in its 278 units.

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Despite demand, Parklawn Hall to close

Despite high demand, the University of Iowa plans to close the Parklawn Residence Hall ahead of the 2024-2025 academic year.

Parklawn is on the west side of campus near Hancher Auditorium, a roughly 20-minute walk from central campus.

"When we decided to continue to operate Mayflower Hall, we knew that we had enough capacity to put students in Mayflower that we didn't need Parklawn anymore," Assistant Vice President for Student Life and Senior Director of University Housing and Dining Von Stange told the Press-Citizen in March. "We felt that Mayflower itself was advantageous versus Parklawn simply because it's on a bus route."

Parklawn closed in 2017 when Catlett Residence Hall opened but reopened in 2022 because of large first-year student enrollment. The building will be available for housing if the university deems it necessary.

"Parklawn is a drop in the bucket compared to Mayflower's capacity, and we knew that we could house all of our first-year students, all of our returning students in Mayflower and other residence halls without having to use Parklawn," Stange said.

The building is in good shape so that we could put students in there," Stange continued. "But we just didn't feel like having it open in addition to Mayflower."

Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at [email protected] or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ryanhansen01.

Jessica Rish is an entertainment, dining and business reporter for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. She can be reached at[email protected] or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rishjessica_.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: University of Iowa halts selling Mayflower dorm, will house students