University of Iowa looks to sell Mayflower Residence Hall

• University of Iowa plans to sell Mayflower Residence Hall, which was built in 1968 and has space for 1,032 students.
• A UI master plan cites the dorm's distance from classes and food service, and says it is the least-desirable housing option among first-year students.
• Proceeds from the sale - and borrowed funds - would pay for a new residence hall, which could cost $40-60 million.
• Until a new dorm is constructed, “not all returning students will be able to return to live in the residence system," the report says.

IOWA CITY — Nearly 55 years after a private firm built the Mayflower Apartment Community overlooking the Iowa River, marketed to students as a “luxury” dorm — and 40 years after the University of Iowa bought the eight-story building outright — the UI is planning to sell its Mayflower Residence Hall.

With those sale proceeds — plus any borrowing they need to do — UI administrators want to build a $40 to $60 million residence hall for returning students. Currently, most UI residence hall space is prioritized for freshmen.

“Built in 1968, the Mayflower Residence Hall is located over one mile from academic classes, food service, and residence hall neighborhoods,” according to a UI summary of its housing master plan going before the Board of Regents next week. “For first-year students, it is the last-chosen and first-transferred-from residence hall.”

The master plan indicates a new returning-student hall could hold between 250 and 400 beds — making it similar in size to Stanley Hall, housing 354 students, or Daum Hall, housing 344 students, on the east side of campus. The plan aims to build the new hall on UI-owned land also on the east side of campus.

UI officials also shared plans to undertake a series of renovation projects costing $5 to $10 million each. Although administrators in the documents didn’t spell out specifics of those potential projects, they did indicate work of under $5 million is planned for Daum next year and Rienow Hall on the west side of campus in 2027.

Upgrades of over $5 million are planned for Currier Hall on the east side next year; Burge Hall this year and again in 2026; and Hillcrest Hall on the west side of campus. A $23 million project to upgrade Hillcrest began last year, with plans to wrap in 2024.

Funding for those upgrades will come from UI housing renewal and improvement funds, while the UI plans to pay for its new returning-student hall with Mayflower sale proceeds and debt, according to regent documents.

Mayflower Night Club

Although Mayflower, 1110 N. Dubuque St., sits about a mile from the UI Pentacrest, academic buildings and Iowa City’s downtown, it’s only a short walk to Iowa City parks, the Iowa River path and Hancher Auditorium.

Mayflower houses 1,032 students in suite-style rooms — meaning students in a single or double room share a kitchen and a bathroom with one other room. They’re furnished with desks and lofted beds and offer amenities like air conditioning, a fitness center and a convenience store.

For the current academic year, Mayflower’s double room rates are $4,254 — below other similar units in Burge, Daum, Catlett Hall and Rienow, for example.

Mayflower Hall was built in the 1960s in place of what started in 1851 as the Walter Terrell Mansion, home of the entrepreneur who built a dam and grain mill on the Iowa River. The mansion in the 1930s or 1940s became the Mayflower Inn, featuring the Mayflower Night Club, before it was demolished and replaced with apartments.

The university began leasing portions of the building in 1979 due to crowding and bought it outright in 1982. The UI in 1999 spent $1.5 million renovating Mayflower to include a game room, coffee shop and multipurpose room. It suffered extensive flood damage in 1993 and 2008, and the adjacent Dubuque Street was raised above the 100-year flood plain.

By selling Mayflower, the UI will remove from its books deferred maintenance costs. And while it will temporarily reduce the university’s 6,527-student housing capacity, the UI plans to keep using its aging Parklawn Hall — which administrators planned to raze but kept open this year to meet on-campus housing demand.

'Until new beds are constructed’

Although the UI saw a dip in residence hall occupancy during the pandemic — dropping to 78 percent in fall 2020 and inching up to 85 percent in fall 2021 — the campus is back up to 97 percent, according to a new Board of Regents report.

The UI, according to that report, plans to reduce its on-campus housing capacity to 5,679 in the coming years — expecting beds will be 100-percent full once that happens. With room and board rates proposed to increase 4.2 percent next year, UI Housing and Dining expects to generate $88.2 million — to be offset by rising expenditures, leaving it with a net revenue $12.9 million, down from the current year estimates of $13.3 million.

“The number of returning students will need to be closely managed, with not all returning students able to return to live in the residence system until new beds are constructed,” the report said.

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