DENVER — Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU Denver) will break ground Wednesday on its first-ever on-campus dormitory, Summit House.
“It's been a long time coming,” Vice President of Student Affairs at MSU Denver Will Simpkins said. “We've been a commuter institution for 60 years, since we were founded."
While the university is known for its commuter student population, this new building meets a demand Simpkins said students have been asking for, citing a recent survey which revealed that over 70% of students prefer to live on campus.
“Our students are commuting from as far away as Brighton, Littleton, Colorado Springs, even,” Simpkins said. “It really means that we will continue to serve the students of Colorado, the students of the Front Range, by providing housing options. I don't think there's a person in Denver who doesn't think it's hard to find housing here right now, and our students certainly feel that.”
The 12-story, $117 million student resident hall, named Summit House, will include 155 units and about 550 beds.
That's only a small portion of the 17,000 students that were enrolled for the 2024-2025 school year, but they'll all still have access to new resources.
The resident hall will also feature food and beverage options and a career center.
“While it will change the physical makeup of our campus to see a 12-story building here where there didn't used to be one will continue to serve the same students and the same families in the same communities,” Simpkins said.
When Denver7 asked Simpkins if this new development could lead to more on-campus housing in the future, Simpkins said they are taking things slow.
“We'll see. Don't want to say no or never to anything,” Simpkins said. “We're going to study sort of what kind of drive we have from students for this, how quickly we're able to fill it."
MSU Denver currently estimates over 300 students live in CU Denver’s two buildings with which MSU Denver has a partnership. Several thousand students also live in privately owned student housing buildings near campus.
Education
MSU Denver to build first-ever on-campus dormitory
When Denver7 shared this announcement of this development in June, some students were excited for the housing, others indifferent, saying they would still commute.
The groundbreaking will take place on the Tivoli Quad at 4:20 p.m. Wednesday.
