ASU wants to replace frats with dorm-type houses

ASU hopes to tear down its aging fraternity houses to open space for a dorm-like development where the Greeks would live and school officials would have greater control over the raucous party scene.

A group of eight fraternities that own land on Alpha Drive is working with Arizona State University to build a major development across from Wells Fargo Arena. In addition to Greek housing, the project might include a hotel, convention center, retail, restaurants and regular student housing.

Within two years, the cluster of fraternity houses that have stood more than four decades could be razed.

The residences that replace the houses would run far more like ASU’s residence halls, allowing the university to better crack down on misconduct.

“When students are in a residence hall community, it’s an opportunity for them to get better amenities and also for them to have a better environment in terms of being healthy and being safe and secure,” said Leah Hardesty, an ASU spokeswoman.

The fraternities are leading the project, but several of the students living in the houses said demolishing Alpha Drive would damage the Greek system.

Moving fraternities into residence halls — which prohibit alcohol — would take away the groups’ independence and history.

“These houses are our pride and joy,” said Mike Fennell, a member of ASU’s Delta Sigma Phi chapter.

Few would comment on the record because the Interfraternity Council, which governs ASU’s fraternities, has asked members not to speak to reporters.

University police have responded to four alleged sexual assaults and four aggravated assaults this year at the fraternity houses, ASU records show. There have been at least 11 alcohol violations just since the fall semester began in August.

Jeff Abraham, who represents the eight Alpha Drive fraternities, said the students are misinformed. ASU’s chapters will have a say in how their residences are built.

“Everyone will have independence,” Abraham said.

ASU is a perennial top 10 party school in unscientific rankings by Playboy and other magazines, a reputation university officials have long tried to shed.

The Greek community isn’t solely responsible for the designation — fewer than 5 percent of Arizona State’s undergraduate students are in a fraternity or sorority — but it has contributed.

ASU gained national attention in 2002 when the vice president of the student body starred in a pornographic movie filmed at his fraternity house.

Alpha Drive’s houses are in bad shape. Several are boarded up and surrounded by chain link fences. Those still occupied haven’t been maintained well.

On Wednesday afternoon, several cars were parked in the Delta Sigma Phi house’s front yard.

The former Pi Kappa Alpha house is literally crumbling and has been vacant since a fire gutted it in 1997. That fire prompted ASU’s fire marshal to threaten to close all the Alpha Drive houses for not having sprinkler systems.

However, some of the houses sit on lots worth more than $1 million.

The Sigma Chi house is valued at more than $1.4 million, according to the Maricopa County Assessor’s Office.

Abraham said they began considering the development after the Pi Kappa Alpha fire.

The redevelopment could take several years to begin due to the complexity of the negotiations, Abraham said.

“When you’ve got nine separate landowners on an 18-acre site, there’s a lot of work to be done contractually to put that all together,” he said.

The group, tentatively named Threshold Properties, approached ASU in 2004 about the redevelopment, Hardesty said. The university is waiting for the fraternities to reach a final agreement before work can begin.

“It’s our understanding that the fraternities are in support of this project,” she said.