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LOGAN, Utah — Dozens of students at Utah State University have just learned that the apartment complex they planned to move into before the start of the school year is not ready for residents.
The pandemic's impact on lumber prices is getting some of the blame, but students that spoke to KSL-TV said they don't understand why they weren't told sooner, when it seems clear to them that these apartments are far from finished.
"No progress has been made on the building since May, and at least what it looked like when I just drove by," said Conner Carlile, who is from Salt Lake.
He said being right across the street from campus was a huge draw, but now, "it's just been extremely frustrating, the lack of communication is terrible."
"It just would have been nice to know sooner," Carlile said, adding that it's been trouble from the beginning. For weeks, he's suspected the worst.
"It's just been zero communication with the company, until just a couple of days ago," he said. "They released an announcement two weeks before move-in that the building's not going to be done."
An e-mail sent out to hopeful tenants at 800 Block said that the project has unfortunately been experiencing continuous construction delays due to COVID-19 and the tremendous shortage of building supplies.
With the explosive development of new construction happening throughout the Salt Lake metro and airport area, it has been an unprecedented time in construction.
KSL-TV tried to reach out to the contractor, Nelson Partners, but did not hear back.
"It's just annoying," said Nate Henry. "I don't have time for this."
Henry is in the same boat as Carlile, all while working two jobs in his hometown in Virginia.
"The lease was supposed to start on the 23rd and school was supposed to start on the 30th. I have 20 days to find housing," said Henry.
And this isn't the first time type of issue has come up in Logan.
As KSL reported in 2015, delayed construction of The Factory apartments at Utah State, too, had students scrambling then. Construction at the time was being managed by Nelson Brothers, which was later divided into a separate company; Nelson Partners. The Factory is now owned and operated by a different company.
Officials with Utah State University said they're trying to make room for some of these students, who have been told that they can get out of their lease with 800 Block. They encourage anyone affected by the changes to contact the school as soon as possible.
University officials told KSL-TV they reached out to 800 Block to help them to contact the displaced students, but did not hear back.
Correction: In an earlier version, the contractor was incorrectly identified as Nelson Brothers, not Nelson Partners.
