By Brianna Gleghorn
A state-of-the-art fitness center, tanning beds, bike storage room, coffee bar and an Amazon package center are only some of the amenities Youngstown State University students can expect through a new off-campus housing facility.
Campus Lofts will give students a new housing option for the fall 2020 semester, located on the corner of East Rayen and Wick avenues on the outskirts of campus.
The 190-bed apartment complex will have a variation of unit sizes.
James Sabatine Jr., owner of Trilogy Realty & Development and the Campus Lofts, said he’s hoping to fulfill a need for student housing with the complex project.
“YSU is local; we’re local. I went to YSU, and there was a need for student housing, and it just made sense,” Sabatine said. “We liked everything we saw about YSU and where they’re heading.”
According to Sabatine, providing this housing option to students will help YSU grow by attracting local and nonlocal students.
“I think the university, to grow, needs to attract students from out of town along with giving living options down on campus to people that are from the area or if you’re from out of town,” Sabatine said.
He said the Campus Lofts are different than anything YSU or other universities have regarding student housing.
“I think a lot of students graduating high school are going to say, ‘These are nicer than what I can live in at Kent [State University] or University of Akron.’ And I think it’ll help them make YSU their choice to go to college here,” Sabatine said.
According to Sabatine, the price of the units will be “pretty much in line with what [students] pay at the other properties down there.”
Sophia Harakal, a YSU alumna and property manager of the Campus Lofts, said being a recent graduate from the university has helped her provide a student perspective in the planning process.
“I think it’s helpful I was a student because I get to be a part of something that’s new on campus, and since I just graduated, I still think like a student,” Harakal said.
She said the attention to detail within the units will make these apartments unlike anything constructed in the Youngstown area before.
“The quality and the time that everyone has put into making it seem like the nicest place you could possibly live in this area,” she said. “There’s nothing downtown like the lofts.”
In Sabatine’s opinion, Strollo Architects was the best company for the project because it is staffed by Youngstown natives.
“We brought the project to Strollo [Architects] because we wanted to hire a local architect, and they’re one of the best, if not the best, local architects. … That was important,” Sabatine said. David Roose, project manager at Strollo Architects, said the location of the complex gives residents easy access not only to YSU but also to the luxuries of downtown Youngstown.
“You have access to everything. The library is across the street. The university’s across the street. You have food, restaurants, entertainment available and have the downtown within a block,” Roose said.
According to Roose, the complex is unique to student housing and nonstudent residential housing in Youngstown with lofts on the fourth floor.
“Some of the loft spaces are really dynamic in the way that the space is treated in the kind of large open areas with lots of ceiling space and lots of natural light, great views,” he said. “There’s no student housing I know around YSU that has anything like this.”
Roose said although high-ceiling lofts are only located on the fourth floor, the lower levels are spaced out and carefully configured units.
Additionally, Studio Oxygen in Canfield and the Campus Lofts partnered to provide free yoga classes to YSU students, including this benefit in the monthly rent.
Residents can also receive a technology package to watch premium channels outside of their unit on a laptop or phone. A computer lab with a printer will be available in one of the three study rooms.
Students interested in leasing a unit can apply online at ysucampuslofts.com, stop in to the temporary leasing office on the third floor of the First National Bank building in Youngstown or call its office at 330-717-2992.
