The location near the Alerus Center where the Grove Apartments are being built. Photo by Keisuke Yoshimura/ The Dakota Student.

A new collection of 13 fully-furnished student apartments buildings are under construction next to the Alerus Center in Grand Forks.

The Grove, with its slogan “Fully loaded college living” is a national chain of apartment buildings targeted toward young people, mainly college students. Each apartment room comes stocked with furniture, and each complex features a wide variety of both indoor and outdoor amenities.

“It can be difficult to beat the price point that the dorms offer, especially considering how close they are to campus,” UND spokesman Peter Johnson said. “I understand that different students are going to want different things. Some will want the privacy and independence of living off campus, while others enjoy the proximity to campus of the dorms. The campus owned apartments such as UPlace are an in between for the dorms and completely independent off-campus apartments.”

The Grove’s headquarters is in North Carolina, but it has franchises in college towns all over the U.S., according to its website. Its first North Dakota franchise is scheduled to open on Aug. 23, 2014, just in time for next year’s Welcome Weekend.

According to Grove Sales Manager Amy Sansaver, the Grand Forks complex will feature 13 buildings; 12 structures with 16 rooms in each and one clubhouse, which will have eight larger premium apartments.

The furnishings in each Grove apartment room include a microwave, a refrigerator, a dishwasher, a wooden dinner table and chairs set, a recliner, a couch, a washing machine and a dryer.

“We offer a lifestyle,” Sansaver said. “It’s a fun (apartment) complex.”

Each individual bedroom comes with a bed frame, a mattress, a wooden desk and chair set, a bathroom and a walk-in closet.

“We include four different recycling bins in each room,” Grove leasing agent Tony Desharanis said. “We want to emphasize our green initiative.”

All apartment rooms are “pet-friendly,” too. Pets have to be approved but the company will allow nearly anything except “aggressive dogs” and “large fish aquariums,” according to Desharanis.

Other amenities in the Grove complex include an outdoor pool, tanning beds, a fitness center, a beach volleyball court, a tavern and game room, a library with free printing and a coffee shop. Access to all of these is included in the monthly rental price.

“We will also be hosting community events all the time, about three or four per week,” assistant Grove leasing agent Andrew Lekatz said. “These will include pool parties, beach volleyball tournaments and season premiere nights for popular TV shows.”

The monthly rent prices will be $510 per room in a three-bedroom apartment or $535 per room in a two-bedroom apartment, according to Desharanis. This is Grove’s early-bird special though; the prices will increase after construction is done, but those future prices have not been decided yet.

Anyone interested in checking out the Grove apartments can stop by the company’s office on 42nd Avenue South, next to the Alerus Center. Letatz said “it will definitely help with the shortage of student housing in Grand Forks.”

“It will be like living in a residence hall, but 10 times better,” he added. “It will have that community feeling of the dorms along with the privacy of an apartment.”

Desharanis, who is graduating from UND this December, said he wishes the Grove Apartments would’ve been around when he was a freshman.

Jaye Millspaugh is the multimedia editor of The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected]