The universities “decided that they needed additional residence space,” said Thomas Karow, assistant vice president for public relations at Roosevelt. “Forecasts show we will have more students” and not enough room to accommodate them all.

Officials from the universities created the non-profit Educational Development Fund, which developed the residence hall, and in 2003 submitted a proposal to the city of Chicago to obtain a large piece of land to construct the $151 million UCC.

“The city issued a request for proposal and was looking for projects that made sense,” said Denise Mattson, DePaul’s assistant vice president for public relations. Impressed by the universities’ collaborative effort, the city agreed to sell the land to the schools.

The UCC will provide apartment-style rooms to nearly 1,700 students and 43 staff members, in addition to traditional amenities normally offered by residence halls, such as study lounges, a fitness center and laundry facilities.

In addition, the 18-story building will house 31,000 square feet of street-level retail space and 30,000 more a food-service facility.

Columbia, DePaul and Roosevelt will share the bed space in a 40-40-20 ratio, respectively, which could change as student demands fluctuate.

“It will be like living in a fancy apartment building,” said Micki Leventhal, Columbia College’s director of media relations. “It will create a sense of community and campus environment” in downtown Chicago.

The UCC’s location on State Street and Congress Parkway will also have a positive impact on the area itself, school officials say.

“It will be beneficial to have so many students in the area,” Mattson said. “It will add a vibrancy to that end of State Street and create a 24-hour atmosphere.”

Despite the unique living arrangements, concerns over students from the different universities living together have not come up, Mattson said.

“We don’t anticipate any problems,” she said. “(We expect) a very rich environment to result” instead of animosity between students.

With less than a year before the UCC opens its doors to students, some details have not been worked out. There has been no decision as to who will rent the retail space on the UCC’s ground floor and the universities have not determined whether to make the residential floors multi-college or to alternate the colleges by floor.

Some of the UCC’s main attractions are the various types of rooms a student can rent for a nine- or 12-month period. Options range from studios to four-bedroom quad apartments, and each room is fully equipped with room necessities. All rooms also contain one or two bathrooms, and some offer an apartment-style living arrangement with a living room and kitchen.

Rent for the rooms range from $703 to $1,108 for a nine-month lease and from $661 to $1042 for a year lease.

The cost may seem high, but “the apartments are (priced at) market value,” Leventhal said. “Rents in Chicago are very high and the prices for the UCC are competitive” compared to other apartment prices.

Creating the UCC will not only provide more living options for Chicago students, it will help attract more to the area, Karow said.

“This is a major thing for Roosevelt,” he said. “It enables us to attract students from around the country and to expand our reach to (future) students.”

At DePaul, students are already drawn to the new residence hall.

“We’ve been marketing it for a while,” Mattson said. “We’ve already had 130 students register in the first week registration began.”

Since the UCC is targeted more at the current student population of upperclassmen and graduate students, the universities are still offering traditional housing and apartments for incoming or other students.