This is a developing story. Check back for updates. 

University of Iowa students will continue to live in Mayflower Residence Hall during the next academic year. The residence hall, which went up for sale for $45 million in February 2023, was originally slated to not house students next fall. 

The UI reported that Mayflower needed to be a housing option because of record-level student housing applications, around 1,500, for on-campus housing for next fall. 

UI officials said Thursday that additional study spaces and single rooms are planned for Mayflower. UI public relations specialist Chris Brewer said Mayflower is still for sale and any deal would be conditional because the university is using the building for the next academic year.

Iowa City real estate broker Jeff Edberg of Lepic-Kroeger Realtors told The Daily Iowan in October that while no official decision has been made, the outlook of the sale seems positive. 

The sale was initially announced almost a year ago exactly in February 2023. Around the same time, the UI made a request to the Iowa Board of Regents seeking approval to build a new dorm.

The new dorm would be built on the east side of campus and would house 250 to 400 beds. Proposed locations included behind Stanley and Currier halls, and the Recreation Center parking lot, among others. Brewer said Thursday that the UI does not have any updates to share on the new residence hall. 

Regents approved the UI’s request during their February 2023 meeting, with the plan to have Mayflower potentially close and be sold this spring. Mayflower’s sale is a part of the UI’s Housing Master Plan, which states its sale would not “impact the University’s ability to house first-year incoming students.”

The UI put Mayflower on the market after the university reported in August 2023 that first-year students who live in Mayflower had the lowest grade point averages compared to other on-campus residents. 

UI public relations manager Chris Brewer told the DI in January when Mayflower was not a housing option that on-campus space would have been limited for returning students. 

“We will be able to house all first-year students who wish to live in the halls and meet the prescribed deadlines,” Brewer said.

Mayflower houses approximately 888 residents this academic year and was built in 1968.  

Alejandro Rojas contributed to this article.