By Mairead Loschi
On Wednesday night, the University of Connecticut Undergraduate Student Government discussed the development of a new hotel to replace the Nathan Hale Inn.
The Nathan Hale Inn is currently used as overflow housing for undergraduate students. The university officially purchased the inn this past July.
Alan Calandro, newly appointed Special Advisor and Project Manager under the Executive Vice President for Administration and Chief Financial Officer, discussed the recent proposal with the USG.
“The Nathan Hale was bought by UConn over the summer and it has 50% students now and will be moved over to a full dormitory at some point, that point being when another hotel opens up,” said Calandro.
The Nathan Hale Inn is capable of housing 280 students in triple-style rooms. The University purchased the inn for a total of $8.3 million and plans to spend $648,000 on the maintenance of the inn, in an effort to offset an increasing need for student housing.
No decisions have been made regarding the possible location of the new hotel. Calandro informed the USG of possible options on Thursday.
“The University is looking to have a private developer develop a hotel somewhere in the area, potentially on UConn land,” he said.
He said UConn is assessing the needs of the University and community.
“What I do is to help provide information to potential developers, so they can get a sense of how many students we have, what the demand is for hotel rooms from the student community and families, and make sure that a quality hotel is developed,“ said Calandro.
UConn has said they will not enter into any discussions until an analysis of the proposal is complete, promising that more information updates will come soon.