Plans are being finalized for new ministry facilities and a 20-story residence hall for the All-Saints Catholic Newman Center, which will create a faith-based living community for students.
The project gives the center the opportunity to live out its mission to help students to be more successful at the University through a community of faith, Newman Center officials said.
An official date has yet to be determined for the start of construction, as the current economic crisis has slowed things down.
It just needs to be ensured that all of the financing is intact and all the design is exact, Mary Macuga, director of developments at the All-Saints Catholic Newman Center, said.
“My hope is to be able to break ground toward the end of this year, and we would love to be open for the fall semester of 2011,” Macuga said.
“One of the reasons that we’re considering a faith-based residence hall is because it’s a fact that students are more successful at ASU and more likely to graduate if they’re involved in a campus ministry,” Macuga said.
Macuga said the graduation rate for students involved in campus ministry is at about 80 percent, whereas the typical freshman graduation rate is 50 percent.
The project will include a 20-story high-rise, built adjacently to a new church.
The three bottom floors will include student lounges, classrooms and administrative offices, and the top 18 floors will be residential living spaces, Macuga said.
“Right now we have many of our masses in the auditorium because it has more space than the historic church, so this is a way to build a bigger sacred worship space to accommodate more students,” Macuga said.
Macuga added that the church next to the current Newman Center would remain where it stands because it is a historic landmark.
The residential portion will house about 550 students in apartment-style living areas.
The project was approved by the Tempe City Council in April 2008, and funding for the project has been underway since then.
The new church and the high-rise will be funded separately, Macuga said.
Students and parishioners of the Newman Center raised $4.7 million for the new church through a chapel campaign, she said.
The residence-hall and administrative-offices portion of the project is being funded through Domus Communities in Faith.
Tim Lies, CEO of Domus Communities in Faith, said the high-rise, which will cost an estimated $38 million to $39 million, will be funded through tax-exempt bonds.
Taxes and bonds will be sold to investors to fund the construction of the project, he said.
Lies said the company is talking with people and actively seeking investors for the project.
“We hope to secure financing and move quickly,” Lies said. “We’d like to be under construction in the third quarter if at all possible.”
Macuga said it is easy to assume the new residence hall would be for Catholic students only, but she said that is untrue.
“It’s a Christian-based community certainly, but anyone would be welcome to live in this dorm,” Macuga said.
Marketing sophomore Chelsea Wuest said for her, as a non-Catholic, to consider living in the new residence hall would depend on two things.
“What they are charging compared to other dorms and how much they’re pushing for people to be involved,” she said.
Wuest said she wouldn’t mind living in a building with the Catholic name on it — she just wouldn’t want to feel as though she was being pushed to get involved with their activities.
The project is a smart idea for the church to do, Wuest added.
“It’ll show [that the Newman Center leaders] are actually here for their students, and I think it will help boost their image around campus,” Wuest said.
Macuga said everyone at the Newman Center is excited for the new development.
“We really believe in a holistic education of students in that it’s important to us for students to be able to explore their faith and spirituality,” Macuga said.
Reach the reporter at brianna.mattox@asu.edu.
