Strolling down the Auraria campus during the 2025-2026 school year may invoke a familiar sound of Colorado: drills, yells of construction workers, and dozens of work vehicles driving up and down the streets of Auraria. A new building on campus, located at the corner of 11th St and Auraria Parkway, is a dedicated student housing complex for Metropolitan State University.  

MSU was founded as a MSU Student Housing Complex 60 years ago to serve students in the Denver Metropolitan area that would have significantly less access to higher education, and now they are rounding out that deal even further by building the student housing complex.  A recent survey revealed that nearly several thousand of MSU’s 18,000 student body travel more than 40 minutes just to attend class.  

The up-and-coming student housing complex sits right near the barely 5-year-old first-year-focused City Heights Residence Hall dedicated to CU Denver students. The new MSU housing complex plans to provide 550 beds in a 12-story building, set to complete in 2027, and battle against the increased costs of housing for college students in Denver. The project’s budget is running to be $117 million, in collaboration with Columbia Ventures who describe their company as “a team of curious, entrepreneurial collaborators driven to achieve the highest and best uses of the places we develop.” 

It is not just the 550 beds the complex is set to house; the complex also plans to provide 300 workforce housing units to income-qualified residents, a new home to MSU’s classroom to career hub, dining and retail space. This change will take place alongside the move of the Auraria Early Learning Center, the campus’s childcare facility located on the south side of campus near the Colfax at Auraria RTD Station to the new housing complex once complete. 

With ongoing construction, however, navigating Auraria campus has become an even more complex maze than before. The last couple of months have seen 11th St. closed off numerous times, reducing the already limited number of parking spots for students, as well as the closure of Walnut St. for nearly the entire month of January due to water line maintenance tied to the housing complex project. The look of Auraria campus itself will remain affected until 2027, metal fencing will line the entire block of 11th St and construction trailers posted on each side of the street until completion. Not to mention that the sidewalk on 11th St between Auraria Parkway and Walnut St will remain closed until further notice, removing a present safeguard for students and faculty alike walking to and from classes on the east side of campus. 

The new housing complex construction, however, is not the only major project students and downtown Denver residents will need to monitor; the Downtown Denver Project is currently leading efforts to create the new 5280 trail.  

The 5280 trail plans to transform the public’s right-of-way system in downtown Denver, linking numerous neighborhoods and areas of the city through underutilized streets to unite the urban life of metro Denver and Colorado’s love of outdoor culture. The trail plans to span more than 5 miles, connecting Auraria Campus’s east side to Union Station and Coors Field, then to the Art District on Santa Fe and Denver West High School.  

The final design concept for the trail is expected to conclude in the Spring/Summer of this year, and construction of this segment is scheduled for completion in late 2027.  

For more information on both projects, the MSU Student Housing Complex updates can be found here at https://aurariacampus.edu/buildingauraria/msu-denver-housing-retail-building/ 

While the 5280 trail updates and information can be found here at https://www.the5280trail.com/.