Editors Note: This piece was edited with corrections about parking permits from Parking and Transportation.
WKU Student Life Foundation will pay $150,000 a month to lease the Hyatt Place hotel for up to three years, according to lease documents obtained by the College Heights Herald.
Design and construction issues uncovered in Normal and Regents halls, opened 2021 at a cost of $48 million, resulted in the buildings being closed for the 2025-26 academic year. The foundation also announced that Hilltopper Hall, opened in 2018 at a cost of $40 million and closed 2024, must be demolished because of design and construction flaws. The same architecture firm, Sewell and Sewell, and engineering firm, Donald H. Stoneburg Engineering, designed all three buildings.
The dorm changes resulted in approximately 1,000 housing reassignments. Some students were moved to preexisting dorms while other students have been assigned to Center Hall, formerly the Hyatt Place hotel.
According to the Housing & Residence Life website, Center Hall will cost students $4,418 per semester, $150 more than the costs of Normal and Regents halls, making it the most expensive dorm on WKU’s campus.
It is currently uncertain what will happen to the current employees of the Hyatt Place.
“University staff will clean and maintain all common areas, while students are responsible for cleaning their rooms and bathrooms,” states the Housing & Residence Life website.
Parking and Transportation Director Ginny Griffin said primary parking for Center Hall will be in Alumni Square Garage.
Alumni Square Garage currently provides parking for Hyatt Place, WKU El Maz restaurant, WKU visitors and commuters.
Griffin said that 6 a.m to 9 p.m commuter permits will be moved out of Alumni Square Garage, freeing the space for Center Hall student parking.
Griffin also said that about 100-120 commuters will be displaced with the new parking changes but that there are other available commuter lots throughout campus. Housing spaces in Chestnut Street South will be converted to commuter spaces.
“We’ll have 80, 24/7 commuter permits available in that garage,” Griffin said. “That’s about the same as last year.”
Griffin said Adams Street Lot will also be available near Center Hall for first-come first-serve.
Commuter permit sales will begin Monday, June 2, and housing permit sales will begin Tuesday, June 3.
