Will Alligood
Leaders of the University met Friday across from the grounds that will experience the first phase of Greek Village’s redevelopment plan in April.
As part of the groundbreaking ceremony, many of the school’s executive officers, including Chancellor James Oblinger, joined Board of Trustees members and those who had worked for years on the redevelopment of the Village, which could take 10 to 15 years.
“The perception that Greek Life is dying is simply false,” Erik Peterson, the president of Kappa Sigma fraternity, said during the groundbreaking. “Today is evidence of that.”
Phase 1 of the project, which begins in April, will include new roadways, sidewalks and parking lots and four new lots for fraternity houses. Sigma Nu, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Kappa Sigma and Chi Psi are the first houses that will be built as part of Phase 1.
The fraternities are leasing the building lots from the University and funding a portion of the new houses.
Tim Luckadoo, an associate vice chancellor of student affairs, said he thinks once the first new houses are constructed, the other organizations will follow suit.
“That’s what happened at [the University of South Carolina],” Luckadoo said. “They did the first four and went straight from four to 11.”
South Carolina’s revitalization was the model for NCSU’s, according to Luckadoo.
“They kind of created the model where the organizations can lease the land — if not created, then they’re the biggest to do it,” he said. “We talked to the South Carolina people for a while and got really excited about it.”
According to John Mountz, director of Greek Life, work on the houses will begin shortly after Phase 1 begins, and each house costs between $2.5 million and $4 million.