East Campus project put on hold

The university's planned East Campus development has been put on hold indefinitely as developers struggle to get financing in a weak economy.

"The financial world is topsy-turvy," Vice President for Administrative Affairs Ann Wylie said. "It's like reading tea leaves."

East Campus, a planned development that would front Route 1 from Fraternity Row to Paint Branch Parkway, is a 38-acre mixed-use project consisting of a movie theater, the Birchmere music venue, retail stores, graduate student housing and a supermarket. Initially, the university said they would break ground on the project in 2009 and conclude construction of all planned projects by 2015.

But officials are now saying because of poor economic conditions, the university will not be able to procure the loans necessary to move forward on East Campus any time soon.

"We still have issues to deal with," Wylie said. "If we were to start [relocating everything from the site] right now, it would be the fall of 2010 before we could start [breaking ground]."

Wylie cited a 2010 ground breaking as the best case scenario that would in effect still be delaying the project - which was initially lauded for its speedy development and efficient timeline - by a year, but admitted it could be much longer than that.

She added that despite the turbulence of the financial market, the university is not willing to compromise quality for convenience, and is still planning on maintaining the high standard they have set for the development.

"It's one of those things, you know, you look at the world around you and you just have to keep going forward," she said. "You just have to say, 'This horrible gray fog will clear.'"

Officials also noted the financial struggles of the project are not indicative of interest or commitment levels of the campus community.

"Right now, what the developer has is a lot of letters of interest," Wylie said, describing East Campus' "unique" location as a key attraction to the community. "They don't believe the interest in the project has waned."

East Campus also stands to provide a big economic boost to the city, which, officials said, has seen many project delays and cancellations in recent months on account of the economy.

"Right now there's no central location for shopping or entertainment," District 2 City Councilman Bob Catlin said. "Now all we have are some places to have modestly priced meals. This would be a significant development."

Because of the project delay, the services the site is set to provide will not be available until development can be resumed, including East Campus' guaranteed graduate student housing.

But graduate student leaders said the planned housing development will not impact most graduate students, as it is too pricey for them to afford.

"The housing was never going to solve the graduate housing problem," said Laura Moore, former president of the Graduate Student Government who also served on the East Campus steering committee last year. "But [the delay] is certainly a blow in terms of university resources."

Moore cited the supermarket and entertainment venues as projects that would positively impact all students and said the sooner the development is finished, the better.

This is not the first development this university has embarked upon during tough economic times.

During the Great Depression, the university began a transformative building plan that would eventually shape today's McKeldin Mall.

"Don't lose heart," Wylie said. "We're going to have East Campus."

holtdbk@gmail, langdbk@gmail.com