Days Inn and Eighth Avenue Inn to become dorms

Earlier this year, the Clise family ended negotiations with investors from Dubai and decided to delay the selling of their Denny Triangle land holdings until the credit markets thawed. Here's a snippet from the story I wrote back in January:

When the family originally announced it was selling its holdings, they envisioned "a thriving world-class development on par with New York's Rockefeller Center or London's Canary Wharf" and the land and its development likely would exceed $7 billion in public and private investment."

Since it will be awhile yet until we return to the days where billion dollar real estate deals are transacted without batting an eye, the Clise family have decided to turn their old and moldy motels over to Cornish College of the Arts in the interim.

Instead of sitting vacant and being a hotbed for crime, the Days Inn and Eighth Avenue Inn will house first-year art students. This is a big win for the Denny Triangle area.

SLOG has an interview with Associate Provost Jenifer Ward with more info on the program.

In its 95 years of existence, Cornish College of the Arts has never had dorms—until now.

This summer, Cornish is in the (rapid) process of transforming the former Days Inn (at Seventh and Blanchard) and the former Eighth Avenue Inn (on Eighth between Bell and Blanchard) into residence halls for 280 mostly first-year students, who move in starting Sunday, August 30.