University of Tennessee signs new master lease for student housing

University of Tennessee at Knoxville will rent out an entire under-construction apartment complex to house students this fall, and the lease will continue for years to come.

Administrators have been forced to find off-campus solutions to meet the demand as enrollment grows. Additional residence halls are in the works, but construction on three new buildings will take years.

The lease will begin for the 2023-2024 academic year for Lakemoor Station Apartments near Alcoa Highway just north of I.C. King Park, according to a news release from UT.

The lease begins Aug. 1 and ends July 31, 2028, according to a resolution approved by the Tennessee State School Bond Authority.

Students will have the option of staying in one-, two- or three-bedroom fully furnished apartments. The complex will open 84 apartments accommodating 168 students this fall with plans to add 156 units for 348 more students by spring 2024. It will be staffed with a hall director, assistant hall director and resident hall staff.

The university will pay $1,490 per apartment each month for the first year. The rent increases to $2,060 in the second year, and it will increase again to $2,150 for the last three years of the lease. The total cost over five years is $28.8 million.

A bus system will be in place to take students from the apartments to campus. It also will stop at Cherokee Farm Research Park, which is about eight minutes away.

UT signed a one-year lease with the Holiday Inn Express off Papermill Drive for the 2022-2023 academic year. That lease will end this summer.

Keenan Thomas is a higher education reporter. Email [email protected]. Twitter @specialk2real.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: University of Tennessee signs new master lease for apartments