UI officials are seeking the regents’ approval to purchase two properties on Melrose Avenue for $1.1 million.

The UI plans to purchase the two properties — 711 Melrose Ave. and 1 Melrose Place — in order to eventually construct a $3 million parking lot. Officials want to demolish university-owned structures at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 Melrose Place for the project. If the purchase is approved, the UI will lease the 711 Melrose Ave. property back to its sellers from January 2012 to December 2016 for $600 a year.

The 250-space parking lot would be used for UI Hospitals and Clinics staff and physicians who will be displaced upon the construction of the West Campus Transportation Center and the Children’s Hospital.

— by Sam Lane