Local

Former downtown hotel will be ready for Crim

Monday, August 10, 2009

Tags:

local, joel feick

Joel Feick
More: Bio, E-mail, News Team

FLINT (WJRT) -- (08/10/09) -- Construction isn't quite finished on a $20 million renovation at the new Riverfront Residence Hall in downtown Flint.

So how can thousands of runners and walkers from the Crim Festival of Races use the facility before then?

Construction crews are buzzing inside and outside the new Riverfront Residence Hall which was once Flint's largest hotel.

The construction manager of the residence hall says the site will be ready for 15 to 20,000 Crim runners and walkers next week. Work crews will clear out the former banquet halls on the first floor of the former hotel to make room for the annual Crim Health and Fitness Expo.

null: Follow us on Twitter

Crim-related activities will start moving in the hall in five days. The races are a week from Saturday.

Crim officials were unavailable to comment, but the construction manager says the space will be ready and the restrooms will be operational for all those Crim runners and walkers, and all construction equipment will be put in the kitchen or taken off site.

The first phase of the residence hall is set to be finished in three weeks. The rooms will be used by students at the U of M-Flint, along with Kettering University and Mott Community College.

When the Hyatt Regency Hotel opened on this site in 1981, it was largely funded by grants from the Mott Foundation. Less than 30 years later, the Mott Foundation is funding the hotel's rebirth in the form of student housing.

A U of M-Flint marketing major says he's anxious to be among the 250 students who will initially live here. "I live with my mom right not so I'm really looking forward to getting out of the house," student Lamus Rush told ABC12's Joel Feick.

As part of the refurbishing project, old furniture was given to local shelters. Construction crews gutted the rooms them, converting three of the rooms into one suite. Rush and the other students will have three choices: a three-bedroom suite, a four-bedroom suite or a place to call all their own in the form of a studio apartment.

The views are great.

Rush says the rent will be about $400 a month and he expects student aid will pick up most of his bill.

The construction manager says the former Stetson restaurant will be converted into a study hall.

There will also be a workout facility, coin laundry and other amenities. "I hope it won't take too long to get me in, and I hope I get a roommate I can relate to," Rush said.

Phase one of the $20 million renovation includes floors 1-8.

If the demand is there, all 16 floors will be renovated to house a total of about 550 students.