Altura Student Living, located at 400 Putnam Drive not far from FAMU’s campus, is a newly remodeled apartment building available to students at FAMU.
Before being named Altura it went by the name Blue Cascade. It eventually came under new management, who decided to remodel the complex.
About $4 million was invested into the 4-bedroom, 4-bathroom apartments to hopefully be ready for students by fall 2023.
Although Altura may look nice on the inside, it comes with downsides.
While some students were able to move into Altura on their initial Aug. 23 move-in date, some students were not able to, after Altura informed them, they could not move in until Sept, 23.
Madison Spaulding, a 19-year-old, studying business administration at FAMU, said Altura Student Living has been more than a little inconvenient for her.
“My room was not prepared by the date they provided. They moved me into a hotel room that was over 20 minutes away from campus, that didn’t even come with a fridge or microwave. How did they expect me to cook or bring food back without anywhere to put it,” she said.
This then caused Spaulding to travel more than she intended. When she should be less than two miles away from campus, they left her traveling nearly 10 miles every day to get to campus.
Altura did try to compensate by waiving the rent for the month of August for any students who could not move in until September.
Zi ‘Kiyla Lewis, a second-year nursing student from Pahokee, said Altura does offer some upsides.
“They respond about problems in our building quickly. We usually don’t wait too long to have any problems fixed, and they even give us gifts sometimes when we come into the leasing office,” Lewis said.
The complex is still adding finishing touches to apartments that students have already moved into, as in mounting TVs, placing couches, dining tables, chairs and fixing small adjustments like non-working light switches and AC units.
Altura Student Living is still undergoing construction on its last building as of Saturday, leaving at least eight students without housing near campus. They are instead forced to stay in hotels.