ORLANDO, Fla. – University of Central Florida and Valencia students living at the new downtown campus say they have created petitions demanding answers as to why their new campus dorms aren't finished yet.

In August, hundreds of students moved in to their dorms at UnionWest at Creative Village, the new student housing tower at the new UCF campus in downtown Orlando.

University officials said more than 7,000 students have enrolled for the fall semester at the 15-acre UCF downtown campus. Classes started Aug. 26.

The new campus was supposed to be state-of-the-art, said Anthony Daniels a UCF junior, but it has been anything but that for some students.

"Many of the amenities and services that were offered in the brochure are not available and still in the process of creating them," he said.

The student housing tower features more than 640 beds and students from both institutions can live there. There are a variety of units available with rent anywhere from $760 to $1,210 per month.

A brochure Daniels had in his hand promised "Quick-service food options will be waiting downstairs."

However, Daniels said there is only one restaurant open three months into the semester.

"There is nothing here except for Dunkin' Donuts and that just opened up in October, so for months we had nothing here."

Daniels said residents didn't even have a garbage chute for the first month and had to run from 15 floors up all the way to the bottom floor to get to the dumpster.

Freshmen Tristan Lamaire and Ericka Duval are among the list of unhappy student residents.

"It's supposed to be a five-minutes walk from my bedroom to my classroom and it tends to be -- when the elevators are working," Lamaire said.

"It's a new building. Everything is nice but at the same time everything is unfinished," Duval said. "You have paint chips on the walls. It takes 10 times to flush down the toilet, the elevators take 15 minutes to go down each and every floor."

Students at the downtown campus have started a petition calling for a reduction in the students' base rent, citing issues with their living conditions.

"Residents were not informed of the non-functioning housing services before move-in and all attempts to reach out to Housing Authorities have been met with either no response or lack-luster action," the petition read. "Factoring in other observances, such as total power and water outages the night of September 24th, 2019. We request each eligible resident to be granted a rent reduction of $250 for all grievances."

UnionWest at Creative Village is a student housing property privately owned by Creative Village SHP Owner LLC and developed by Ustler Development and Development Ventures Group. UCF officials say UCF Housing and Residence Life was hired to manage the student living areas and residential curriculum for UCF and Valencia College students.

"UCF has worked diligently to provide a quality campus environment for students, including on-campus classrooms, study spaces, a fitness center, health clinic and many opportunities for student engagement," a statement from UCF officials read. "UCF has provided food trucks on campus while construction of the privately developed restaurant spaces continues."

The university forwarded all questions about the building's construction and timeline to the building's developers.

A spokesperson for Creative Village SHP Owner, LLC said the building is up to current codes.

"UnionWest is a building that is designed and built to meet or exceed all current building codes, including those related to air conditioning, plumbing, elevators and exhaust systems," Dennis Biggs, with Creative Village SHP Owner, LLC, said in an email. "The building, including the student housing, is complete, but we do have continuing punch-list work being performed that is limited and nearing completion, and in any event is definitely not occurring overnight. As the building owner, our goal has always been, and continues to be, to provide a premium housing facility that rivals the best urban student housing in the country."



"Similar to all new buildings, UnionWest has protected areas of refuge to accommodate persons with disabilities on each floor, as elevators are specifically not to be used without fire department assistance during fire emergencies."