The Arizona Board of Regents green-lighted a project last week that would create housing for more than 900 ASU students.

ASU plans to partner with developer American Campus Communities to build a $72 million town-home complex exclusively for sorority and fraternity members.

ASU estimated less than 10 percent of students in the school's sororities and fraternities live in the college's current Greek housing, Adelphi Commons and the Villas at Vista.

“We really do have a need at additional capacity here,” Morgan Olsen, ASU’s chief financial officer and executive vice president, told ABOR.

The 950-bed complex would replace the Cholla Apartments on Rural Road. American Campus Communities would pay for the complex and ASU would pitch in $9.5 million to build an adjacent community center with meeting rooms and retail space.

“We do that primarily because we think it is a way of making the most effective use of the university’s capital,” Olsen said of the public-private partnership. “We like to focus that on our core missions of teaching, learning and research.”

American Campus Communities would manage the maintenance and other daily operations, while ASU would provide residence life staff and security through campus police.

Olsen acknowledged that Greek life is known to be a “bit exuberant.”

“We’re prepared to deal with those types of things and we feel that the location and design of this facility will provide a fantastic living and learning environment,” Olsen said.

The Cholla Apartments, built in 1969, are mostly demolished and construction is scheduled to start in January. Olsen said students should be able to move in the fall 2018 semester.