Cal State Long Beach will start construction on its new $115 million La Playa Hall student housing complex in spring 2024 on the west side of campus, adding 424 beds for low-income students in single and double occupancy rooms, according to Associate Vice President of Beach Building Services, Mark Zakhour.
The project is part of a recent plan update that calls for adding some 1,600 student beds and 285 housing units for faculty and staff to accommodate growing enrollment by 2035.
Most of the money for the three new buildings, funded partly by the state, is for low-income housing creation, Gregory Woods, spokesperson for CSULB, said in an email.
The campus also confirmed it will not place all of the students eligible for lower-income housing in the same complex.
“Instead of putting ‘low-income’ people in one hall, the equivalent number of funded low-income beds—424 beds in total—will be distributed across the various residence halls on campus,” Woods said.
The new five-story, 108,000 square-foot buildings will have lounges, study rooms, music practice rooms and ground-level kitchens as well as two satellite offices for student counseling and psychological services, a 2,000 square-foot multipurpose room, and three staff/faculty apartments, said Zakhour.
Construction is expected to finish in 2026, according to Zakhour.