Marquette purchased The Marq, an apartment complex just west of campus on Wisconsin Avenue, as announced in a university news brief Oct. 16.
The Marq, formerly known as the 2040s, already houses hundreds of Marquette students, so the transition lies in ownership of the building. Rooms will be offered to juniors, seniors, graduate and professional students through Marquette starting next year.
Purchasing The Marq is one of many steps the university is taking to increase its influence on real estate surrounding campus. The goal is to acquire and secure quality housing in close proximity to the university in order to increase admissions. The master plan is what Marquette calls “Beyond Boundaries.”
The Marq offers its residents common rooms, study rooms, a courtyard, a fitness center, a computer lab and two restaurants among other things, according to their website. Marquette partnered with Harrison Street Real Estate Capital, LLC for the project. The company plans on investing 1.5 million dollars into additional updates.
“The reality is that high quality housing in the areas immediately surrounding our campus is in very high demand, so this acquisition will benefit our upper division students for many years to come,” university spokesperson Brian Dorrington said. “We feel that the facility will be really appealing to students.”
Such updates include increased security measures including more frequent patrolling by Marquette University Police Department. The building itself will be inspected by MUPD to ensure all other security measures are up to date.
“As Marquette just announced that we will take on ownership of the building, we are still working out some of the specific transition details. The Marq will function similarly to all other Marquette-owned apartments,” Rick Arcuri, Executive Director of Student Affairs Operations, said.
Day-to-day operations will be overseen by the Office of Residence Life, like other Marquette-owned student-living spaces. This includes having an apartment manager in-house to monitor daily operations and assist with resident or facilities concerns and a community assistant who will be in charge of organizing get-togethers for residents. Capstone On-Campus Management, another university partner in the project, will handle building maintenance.
Mary Janz, Executive Director of Housing and Residence Life, and Kelsey Stockton, Assistant Director of University Apartments and Off Campus Student Services, said current leases will be honored, including those made prior to the announced transition. Additionally, residents of The Marq will be given the same priority to renew leases or change units within the university apartment system.
“We are excited to increase our University Apartments’ capacity by approximately 600 beds and look forward to partnering with COCM and Harrison Street Real Estate Capital to provide an outstanding student housing experience,” the two said, in a joint statement.
Rates vary across all university owned apartment buildings, and it has not yet been determined how The Marq will fall in comparison or if the current rates for rooms in The Marq will be affected. A transition team is working on how future rates will be affected.
