New housing on track at Hollins University

ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. (WDBJ) - It is crunch time for construction at Hollins University. The school is on track to complete three new houses in its on-campus Student Apartment Village.

“Well, when we did this project, this was our first housing project in almost 50 years,” said Kerry Edmonds, executive vice president and chief operating officer for the university.

In the last six months, Hollins University has been working on Phase 2 of its housing project, adding to the four homes built last summer.

“These three houses will add 28 additional students, so we will have 68 total students in the apartment village this fall,” Edmonds said.

The university is on track to give the keys to students at the start of the semester, but the project wasn’t without its challenges, thanks to the ongoing COVID pandemic.

“Supplies, very hard to get anything that’s made out of the United States,” G&H Contracting Job Superintendent Joe Partleton said.

Crews had to move quickly to make sure they were going to meet deadline, Partleton said.

“We had to make sure we got far enough ahead to make sure everything worked,” he said.

Now, with every stroke of paint, the crews are creating a new opportunity for students to connect on campus.

“They’re close to classes, close to the dining hall, but again they have their own little community up here,” Edmonds said.

The university plans to build three more units rounding out this village to 10 total homes.

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