Three new residence halls to house 450 students, a community center and a maintenance building will be built at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne starting this fall, the chancellor told faculty Monday.

After the $38 million construction project, in the same location as the rest of the university’s student housing, is complete, about 10 percent of the IPFW student body will be living in student housing, Chancellor Michael Wartell told the faculty senate. Within 10 years, Wartell hopes to have one-quarter of IPFW students living on campus.

That projection is part of a master plan the university is developing with the help of Sasaki Associates, a national campus planning firm hired by Purdue University to assist all the Purdue campuses statewide with individual plans. IPFW is projecting between 15,000 and 17,000 students will enroll in the university by 2018, pushing the percentage of students living in student housing to 25 percent, Wartell said.

IPFW enrolled nearly 12,000 students last fall.

The three new residence halls will join nine existing ones on the Waterfield Campus, across from the main campus on Crescent Avenue near the corner of Hobson Road. Those buildings provide apartment-style living for students, who each have their own room but share a living space and bathroom with other students.

The three new buildings will have three-bedroom units for four students, allowing two to be roommates. It’s a combination students said in a survey they wanted to drive down the rent, Wartell said. Many incoming freshmen also said they preferred having a roommate but after their first year moved toward living alone, he said.

“We base basically everything we’ve done on student surveys,” Wartell said.

The $38 million will come from student rent and bonds, said Walt Branson, vice chancellor for financial affairs. No state money is involved and money will not be taken from student fees, Wartell said.

“We hope it can come in lower than $38 million, but right now, that’s the estimate,” Branson said.

Two residence halls – Phase 2 – that opened in August cost $10.5 million, and the seven original buildings, Phase 1, which opened in 2004, cost $25 million. The 12 buildings will house about 1,200 students.

Students may have other housing opportunities other than campus housing. Place Properties, of Irving, Texas, wants to invest $15 million in a 432-bed student housing project near the school on St. Joe Road.

The firm’s goal is to begin construction this spring or summer and have the complex ready for the start of the 2008-09 school year.

ksoderlund@jg.net