IU Indianapolis students will soon have another option for on-campus housing.
The university got approval from the state budget committee Oct. 29 to partner with a local developer to build a 10-story apartment-style dorm to house nearly 450 students at 441 W. Michigan St.
The developer, Allegheny Street Partners, LLC, will purchase the roughly three-quarters acre site, demolish the building thatās currently there and transfer the land to IU under something called a conveyance agreement. The developer will then lease the land from IU to build and operate the dorm.
The project was first approved by the IU Board of Trustees in June.
Angela Smith Jones, the universityās associate vice president of state relations, told the budget committee Oct. 29 that the university is short about 500 beds for undergraduate students at IU Indianapolis.
āWhat we have found (with an) urban campus like IU Indianapolis,ā Smith Jones said, āis that you have a greater success rate when the students are able to continue to reside on campus, for sure, freshman year and ideally sophomore year.ā
The developer, Allegheny Street Partners, LLC, is a limited liability corporation that appears to have been created by Buckingham Companies, an Indianapolis-based real estate developer. Allegheny shares an address with Buckingham and its creation in 2025 was authorized by a former Buckingham attorney Meredith Devlin.
In an August meeting of the Commission for Higher Educationās budget and productivity committee, IUās former director of state relations Zach Smith Howard said that the university was using the same developer for this project as they did for the Beverly in Bloomington. That developer, Smith Howard said, is Buckingham Companies.
In response to questions about a timeline for building the new residence hall, IU spokesperson Mark Bode referred Mirror Indy to minutes from the June 12 board of trustees meeting, which do not mention any timeframe for construction.
The current building at 441 W. Michigan St. is occupied by RDOOR Housing Corporation and Merchants Bank of Indiana.
IBJ reported in March that both Merchants Bank and RDOOR will be tenants of a new building across the street from Central Library. A Merchants Bank spokesperson told IBJ at the time that the new office will be completed in fall 2027.
Representatives from RDOOR and Merchants Bank did not respond to Mirror Indyās request for comment in time for the publication of this story. However, Smith Howard said in the August budget meeting that Merchants Bank will vacate the building so it can be demolished.
A new residence hall is one of several projects that Indiana University Indianapolis has announced in recent years since IUPUI split into IU Indianapolis and Purdue in Indianapolis in 2024.
James T. Morris Arena, a $110-million sports stadium for basketball and volleyball, was completed this fall and hosted its first event in mid-October.
The university is also working on the $172-million IU Launch Accelerator for Biosciences, or IU LAB, further west near 16 Tech. And, IU is adding lab space with a $60-million expansion of the Science and Engineering Laboratory Building.
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Claire Rafford covers higher education for Mirror Indy in partnership with Open Campus. Contact Claire by email claire.rafford@mirrorindy.org, at 317-759-0249 or on most social media @clairerafford.
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