Photos by Pooja Pasupula.
Hundreds of students have been out of housing since the beginning of classes. The student apartment complex Haven49 has delayed its opening six times, originally promising Aug. 14 and now planning on Oct. 13. It is typical for a large-scale construction project to experience delays, but many students question Haven49’s transparency throughout this process.
“It is difficult to keep your focus on studying when you’re cramped in a hotel room for a month with one bathroom, one desk, no kitchen,” said Josh Bryant, a future Haven49 resident.
Bryant is one of many students who were relocated from their original hotels during the weekend of the race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He and many others were moved into a hotel in Uptown for three days.
“Experience with Haven has been a hit or miss, honestly,” he added. “Management within the last week have [sic] started sending pictures and actually been transparent but that’s been needed for two months now. I’ve had to pay for parking passes to park on campus and wasting [money] on gas.”
One construction worker on the project, who wishes to remain anonymous, told Niner Times weeks ago the move-in date would be Oct. 13 at the earliest. The same worker attributed the delays to “shit management on behalf of Spire,” the construction company assigned to the project. Another group of five workers disagreed; they predicted the end of October at the earliest. When questioned about which parts were incomplete, the workers responded, “Have you seen it? Nothing is done. It all needs work still.”
In the meantime, many students are underwhelmed by their hotel experiences. “Staying at the Residents Inn. Service is terrible. Packages mailed here have been stolen. There are cockroaches and silverfish everywhere and they only sprayed a small portion of the room and said it was OK for our dogs to be in there,” tenant Jordan Gorski told the Niner Times.
The apartment complex still has 87 holds according to Mecklenburg County data. The Public Information Department clarified that, “It is possible for portions of a structure to be approved for occupancy while others are still under construction. This must be carefully planned and approved to ensure safety for all involved and to ensure no one without the proper authority can access the section of the structure that is still under construction. This is called ‘phased occupancy’ and it is a technique that is currently being utilized at Haven49.”
However, the building remains entirely unoccupied.