Student Housing May Be Converted for CSUN Faculty : Residences: University officials seek to attract new staff members with inexpensive on-campus apartments. It would be the first such project in the system.

The missing ingredient to attract new faculty and administrators to Cal State Northridge may be found this fall, university officials say, when a nonprofit campus corporation converts on-campus student apartments into housing for professors and staff.

Don Queen, director of the CSU Foundation, Northridge, which operates the student bookstore and campus food services, said his office has 95% completed negotiations to take over operation of the 120-unit University Village Apartments and demolish a high-rise dorm to build townhouses and condominiums for faculty and staff.

The plan would make the campus the first in the Cal State University system to provide such housing.

Queen said he is negotiating with the CSU chancellor’s office to buy the University Village and University Tower apartments and lease the 12.5 acres they occupy at Lassen Street and Zelzah Avenue.

The University Village Apartments, which have 72 one-bedroom and 48 two-bedroom units, would simply be transformed from student to staff housing. But the towers, which can accommodate 340 students, would be torn down so that the foundation could build 182 townhouses, 432 condominiums or a combination of the two.

University officials said the campus can withstand the loss of student housing because of a low occupancy rate brought about by a smaller than expected freshman class and a slumping economy that has forced many students to live at home.

Queen said the new arrangement would mean lower-cost townhouses and condominiums could be offered for sale and rent to faculty and administrators who otherwise would not accept positions at CSUN because of the high cost of housing in the area.

“We are not always getting our first or sometimes even our second choices because they get sticker shock when they see the price of houses,” he said.

The foundation has hired a consultant to determine the type of housing that faculty and staff would prefer.

George Pardon, a financial management specialist in the office of the CSU chancellor, said the lease for the village apartments should be completed in about 30 days. The sale of the buildings and work on a long-term lease on the land will take at least six months, he said.

The University Tower Apartments, which opened in 1969 as the first on-campus student housing complex, has been closed since September for repairs to remove asbestos and bring the building up to earthquake standards.

Projected costs for the renovation are as high as $8.5 million, however, well above an original estimate of $2 million, Queen said, and the tower is likely to be demolished as a result.

Queen said he would entertain offers from movie companies interested in knocking down the building--as was recently done in Lancaster--to help offset the estimated $17-million to $27-million price tag for the entire project.

With an overall student housing occupancy rate of 62% for the academic year, campus housing officials have agreed to the plan to demolish the tower and replace it with housing for faculty and staff.

“We have to look at the practical reality,” said S. Roger Frichette, director of housing services. “With the cost to renovate the tower exceeding $7 million and the low occupancy rate, this is the best proposal.”

“We need the faculty and staff housing,” said Fred Strache, acting vice president of student affairs and dean of students. Even with the eventual loss of about 650 beds for students, he said, the remaining 2,300 spaces should be adequate for the demand.

By taking over the two buildings, the foundation would also relieve the CSU system of about $4.5 million in debt on the tower and village apartments, which were completed in the early 1980s.

Queen expects to rent the one-bedroom units to faculty and staff this fall for $500 a month, and the two-bedroom units for $650. In contrast, a recent survey indicated that similar apartments in the area rented for $640 and $825, respectively, he said.

He said he hopes to market the townhouses and condominiums about 15% to 20% below the private market levels of $170,000 to $180,000.

Keeping prices below $150,000 is important, Queen said, because most faculty arrive with salaries of about $40,000 a year, meaning that most would not qualify for a loan above $150,000.

With many present faculty members approaching retirement age, the ability to attract staff is vital, university officials say. They estimate that as many as 700 new faculty members may be needed in the next decade.

In addition, many present faculty members say they are considering leaving because of the housing situation.

A 1990 survey by the CSU Foundation found that 41% of faculty and administrators hired in the preceding five years were still renting, largely because they could not afford to buy a house. Half the renters--and one-fourth of those who owned their own homes--said they were considering leaving Los Angeles because of housing costs.

Louise Lewis, a professor of art history and a member of the Faculty Senate, said that providing low-cost, on-campus housing is “essential as a recruiting tool.”

“We are able to attract some of the best in the country, but many of the new faculty are fairly young people without sizable incomes to buy homes here,” said Lewis, who was hired in 1972 and has owned a home in Granada Hills since 1973, when prices were more affordable.

“Having on-campus faculty housing is very good, too, because it is continuing to enhance the idea of the campus as a community,” she said. “And it will be good for the environment because there will be less need for driving.”