A $5-million-dollar renovation to add student housing at TRU will be starting early next month.

Vice president of administration and finance Matt Milovick says the work should be done by September.

He says some Upper College Heights apartments will be converted into suites for students which will add about a dozen rooms.

“We’re doing a number of cosmetic improvement to the rooms, doing a number of sustainability upgrades, new roofs, solar arrays on the roofs, and we’re trying to sort out our mechanical-electrical system to make sure we have the most efficient system. So we’re hoping it’s going to be a better living experience for our students.”

TRU bought the Upper College Heights property last June for $33.4 million, and received a $25-and-a-half-million loan from the provincial government to do so. Many of the apartment units are still being rented by people who lived there before.

“We’re going to add probably around 10 or 12 rooms as we convert apartments into three-and-four-person student suites, but over time we’re going to look at those apartments that we have remaining and determine whether it’s best to leave them as family-student housing or to convert them. So there’s a potential to add another 120, but we’re going to do it in sort of a staged way as those apartments become available to us.”