The first of five phases rebuilding Greek Village will be complete by June 2010, John Mountz the director of Greek Life said.

“Later this spring, the four groups that signed on for phase one can begin construction on their new houses,” Moutz said.

The four groups are Sigma Nu, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Chi Psi and Kappa Sigma.

However, Mountz said that all four fraternities are still completing fundraising and aren’t sure the exact date construction will begin on the houses.

“Several years ago, we examined if groups could, through their national organization or local alumni, lease a piece of ground to own and operate their own house,” he said.

He then said that the current houses were built here in the 1960’s and the groups have been renting them ever since.

One of the goals of the project is to have the organizations owning their houses by leasing land to the groups.

Shelly Dobek, the associate director of Greek Life, said that the leases are held with the national organizations and alumni groups.

According to Mountz, the houses there now were state of the art 1960’s arcitecture and they look like office buildings.

Mountz said that the project was started because fraternities and sororities would rather own their house than rent it.

“The houses were undersized and not really designed well for what is needed,” he said

The new project is modeled after University of South Carolina’s Greek Village, containing 23 houses.

“There will be 20 houses when the project is done and the idea is to create a neighborhood,” Moutz said.

Construction started last summer with phase one, when workers demoloshied two houses which then opened up space for the creation of two new roadways and four building lots.

“This project will allow us to completely reorganize the area,” Moutz said.

Mountz also said the total cost of the project is about $110 million with about $25-30 million coming from the University.

He said that the project won’t be hindered by the University’s budget cuts.

“The funds for the project come from a different fund source,” Mountz said.

He said he is concerned about what happens in the future and how the economy will affect the organizations ability to raise money.

“If an organization fails to get the funds necessary to compete their end, could end up having to forfit their lot,” Mountz said.

That has already happened.

“We initially had Pi Kappa Alpha in Lot number three but they withdrew due to monetary concerns and now Chi Psi is going to be building in Lot number three,” Mountz said.

The size of the project forces it to be done in phases instead of being done all at once.

“We can’t afford to knock down all the houses and rebuild them all at the same time, not all the frats and sororities are ready to build now, and all the houses are occupied and we wouldn’t have a spot for them,” Mountz said.

The University is building townhouses for organizations that don’t have need for a full 40 bed house can have a home.

“The money for the townhouses would come out of housing funds,” Mountz said.

The University will be building a community center as well.

“Greek Village is going to look dramatically differnt from what it does now,” Mountz said.

The students had a lot of say in the iniatial master plan.

“We can get such a better project with student input,” Mountz said.

By working through their alumni, the students will be able to control what their houses look like.

“The organizations are solely responisble for the construction of their house,” Mountz said.

Zachary Henderson, a senior in business, and the president of Kappa Sigma said he doesn’t mind that the University isn’t footing the total bill.

“The University has been really supportive, the way it was split up is perfect, I mean we want to own our own home,” he said.

Phase two, which will take place from July 2010 until its scheduled completion in June 2012 is starting to come together.

“This spring we’re going to go out and start getting commitments for phases two and three,” Mountz said.