Posted on June 13, 2018 by Jana Schwartz
UTSA has partnered with the DoubleTree hotel and Tobin Lofts to accommodate students’ housing needs while taking classes at the Downtown Campus.
(June 12, 2018) - The University of Texas at San Antonio has partnered with the Tobin Lofts and the Doubletree by Hilton San Antonio to offer housing to students taking classes at the Downtown Campus, starting this fall. The housing options are one of many initiatives underway to provide an enhanced student experience to students in the College of Architecture, Construction and Planning, College of Public Policy and College of Education and Human Development.
"This will be the first time since the Downtown Campus opened in 1997 that UTSA has worked with residence facilities to provide students and faculty with housing options in San Antonio's urban core," said Kevin Price, UTSA senior associate vice president of student life, dean of students and co-chair of the Housing Task Force for the Presidential Initiative on the Downtown Campus, along with co-chair Albert Carrisalez, assistant vice president of Government Relations and Policy.
UTSA students will have the option of living at the Tobin Lofts, located at 1415 N. Main St. near San Antonio College and about 10 minutes away from the Downtown Campus by car and 25-30 minutes by VIA bus. This fully furnished, college student community includes private rooms in a number of floor plans, with access to a full kitchen.
Amenities at the Tobin Lofts include a resort-style pool, a parking garage and a 24/7 community center, fitness center, business center and study lounge. The community is also open to UTSA faculty and is pet-friendly.
Five, 10 and 12-month leases are available at the Tobin Lofts. Rates start at $585/month.
Students may also lease rooms from the Doubletree by Hilton San Antonio Downtown, which is across the street from the Downtown Campus at 502 W. Cesar E. Chavez Blvd, San Antonio.
Doubletree accommodations include one complimentary parking pass for the hotel's covered garage, complimentary wi-fi and local phone calls, a mini refrigerator, a 50” flat panel LCD TV, free cable with 54 channels including HBO and 11 sports channels, an outdoor pool with courtyard seating, a 24-hour fitness facility, a business center, on-site coin laundry facility (with a weekly shuttle to a nearby laundromat during hotel renovations) and a Downtown hourly shuttle from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Housekeeping service will be provided at the Doubletree once each week with fresh linens and towels.
Students at the DoubleTree would lease a room from August 17 to December 15, 2018. The cost is $5,180 per semester for a King Standard Bedroom – Single Occupancy and $3,579 per person per semester for a Two Double Beds Standard Room – Double Occupancy. Students should note that the DoubleTree will be under renovations from August through December 2018.
Students who want to live at the DoubleTree in a double room with a roommate should reserve their space at the same time as their roommate. Students should contact Cherilyn Patteson in the UTSA Office of Student Life at cherilyn.patteson@utsa.edu or 210-458-4720 for assistance in finding a roommate.
Freshmen may also choose to live in one of UTSA's Main Campus residence halls - Alvarez Hall, Laurel Village, Chaparral Village, Chisholm Hall or University Oaks - while taking classes at the Downtown Campus. There, students will have access to the Roadrunner Café and have the option of taking a free shuttle to the Downtown Campus for their block classes.
The Downtown Campus shuttle will depart at 8 a.m. on Mondays through Thursdays from the bus stop at the North Paseo Building and drop students off at the Downtown Campus in front of the Frio Street Building. It will leave the Downtown Campus on those days at 4:30 p.m. to return students to the Main Campus.
Students may also travel back and forth between the Main and Downtown Campuses using VIA Route 93. The Fall 2018 VIA student pass, which goes on sale in August at Roadrunner Express, costs $38 per semester.
The UTSA Downtown Campus, located in the heart of San Antonio's business, social and cultural scenes, offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the College of Architecture, Construction and Planning, College of Public Policy and College of Education and Human Development. Currently, more than one-third of UTSA's graduate students take classes at the Downtown Campus.
Food amenities at the Downtown Campus include Subway, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, a salad bar and Provisions on Demand.
— Jana Schwartz
