Brooklyn College’s new dormitory could be open as soon as next spring.
Steve Little, the vice president of finance and administration for the college, and Sefi Zvieli, of New Brooklyn Development, the dorm’s developer, delivered the news to members of Community Board 14’s Education, Libraries and Cultural Affairs Committee at their meeting last month.
According to Florence Valentino, the committee co-chairperson, who reported to the board during its September general meeting, “The dorm will be owned solely by the developer and is slated to open in January, 2010, for the spring semester.”
However, security arrangementsand the cost of the dorm — which will offer approximately 250 students housing in studio apartments or two-room suites in the newly constructed building at 2604-2622 Farragut Road, overseen by a building manager and six resident assistants — are yet to be determined, Valentino said.
“The developer was unable to answer definitively questions about security, on-site and surrounding the building, and the cost to students to rent space, other than to compare it to dorms at CCNY and Queens College,” Valentino told the group gathered at Edward R. Murrow High School, 1600 Avenue L. However, she said, board members had been told that the goal was to create “affordable housing” for the college’s students.
The cost for the new student housing at Queens College runs from $4,250 to $6,250 per student per semester. The cost for the three-year-old dorm at City College ranges from $4,626 to $8,100 per student per semester.
Ernesto Mora, a spokesperson for Brooklyn College, said that, since the early September committee meeting, nothing has been finalized.
“The cost is in negotiation,” he noted. “We are pleased this is going to happen fairly soon now,” Mora went on. “We expect rents will be affordable to students. We will have more information in the next few weeks, and provide all the details in the beginning of December,” when representatives of the college are scheduled to revisit the committee, he added.
As for security, Mora said, “Guidelines are being discussed about the kinds of things that can and can’t be done in the building. The school wants to make sure that the students will be in a safe location and that the transit (between the dorm and the campus) will be safe.”
When it is completed, the 60,000-square-foot building will be eight-stories in height. The developer has previously constructed dorms for New York University and Pratt Institute.
