February 16, 2006

Student Housing area gets new owner

By: Rob Stroud, Staff Writer

CHARLSETON – The panned University Village student housing area has a new owner with an international approach to doing business.

Taurus Investment Holdings has purchased the property southeast of Wal-Mart and plans to move forward with developing the University Village there, said Cristian Galli, managing partner of Taurus of Chicago, on Wednesday. Construction starts today in preparation for an August opening, he said.

Taurus is described as an owner-operator of both directly managed and joint venture commercial real estate throughout the eastern United States, Canada and Europe.   Taurus was founded in 1976 in Munich, Germany , and has had business operations in the United States since 1979.

“We are always looking for new ideas and good ideas,” Galli said during a visit to Charleston to speak with prospective student tenants.

Galli said Taurus officials liked the plans of the University Village’s original developers, brothers Art and Jim McManus of Mount Prospect, to develop single-story, stand-alone houses and duplexes for students instead of multistory apartment buildings.

Plans call for the University Village to include 28 houses and 96 duplex units, which would contain a total of 400 bedrooms.   Those modular housing structures would be arranged along a circular drive on 56 acres, with a commons area in the center.

Galli said this will be Taurus’ first foray into student rental housing, but the corporation sees the potential for taking the University Village concept to other University towns.

“It is our intention to expand the idea and take it to national level,” Galli said.

The McManus brothers had also discussed opening similar student housing areas in other towns.

The University Village project was originally planned for north of east Lincoln Avenue, but the Charleston zoning board voted against this plan in 2003 after hearing opposition from the single-family residents in that area.

Plans for developing the University Village southeast of Wal-Mart won the newly elected Charleston City Council’s approval in May 2005 after the plan narrowly failed to win the previous council’s approval in March last year.  

Opponents voiced concerns about the University Village ’s distance from Eastern Illinois University ’s campus and the large-scale development’s potential negative effect in existing rental housing in Charleston .

Art McManus said Wednesday Taurus had been interested in purchasing the University Village from some time.  

McManus said he and his brother share common business ideas with Taurus and hope to work with that corporation on other projects.

McManus said Taurus will be a good owner-operator for the University Village.   He also thanked those in Charleston who helped him and his brother with their plans for the student housing area.  

“We are very excited to see the University Village continue to go forward,” McManus said.

Galli said Curry Construction of Mattoon will serve as the general contractor on the University Village project and the modular housing structures will be assembled by their manufacturer, Patriot Homes of Elkhart, Ind.

University Village property manager Yvette Paddock said a groundbreaking ceremony has been scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday at the site southeast of Wal-Mart.   She works out of the leasing office-model home at 1405 sixth St.

Contact Rob Stroud at rstroud@jg-tc.com or 348-5734

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