The UI recently released renderings for the new Aspire at West Campus apartments, formerly known as the Hawkeye Court Apartments, and the new apartments will be significantly higher priced.

Hawkeye Court previously served many graduate students with young families, but UI President Sally Mason said in an interview with The Daily Iowan the apartment prices need to remain competitive with the other housing units in Iowa City.

“There’s inexpensive housing, and then there’s housing that was the Hawkeye Court, which was substandard — it was not healthy, it was not good housing,” Mason said.  “We knew whatever was going to be built in its place would cost more. And we insisted that it at least be competitively priced with what goes on across Iowa City. Like I said, we’ll just have to wait and see how all of this plays out in the end.  I don’t think we ever suggested that it would be the same price or anything even close to that, because that just wasn’t realistic.”

The 252 Hawkeye Court Apartment units being demolished were damaged by the 2008 flood. The new apartments are likely to be completed in 2014.

— by Lauren Coffey