Chapman University announced Monday it is purchasing the Katella Grand apartment complex in Anaheim’s Platinum Triangle, which would house up to 900 students in the fall.

At $148 million, this is the most expensive student housing venture for the school.

The university will take ownership of the complex later this month – it is paying $40 million in cash and financing the remainder by issuing $150 million in bonds, which will also pay for the recently approved 402-bed housing project at the Villa Park Orchards Association Packing House.

The 399-unit complex includes apartments in one-, two- and three-bedroom configurations, and sports a fitness center, a rock climbing wall, study rooms and a large pool area. Each apartment also includes a full kitchen and washer and a dryer.

Harold Hewitt, executive vice president and chief operation officer at Chapman, said the independent lifestyle of an apartment is especially appealing to the school’s juniors and seniors.

“Apartments are the most popular form of housing among all our students,” Hewitt said. “Students really don’t like old-fashioned residence halls. They vastly prefer apartment living.”

Chapman will charge students comparable rates for the apartments as it does for on-campus residence halls, Hewitt said.

Katella Grand opened in 2016, and has tenants leasing apartments. The residents will be asked to relocate as their leases expire, Hewitt said. To help smooth the process, the school is offering incentives to stay until roughly May, when the university expects to need the space.

Another apartment building, Parallel, is expected to open in February next door to Katella Grand. Residents on their way out will get first crack at those new apartments, Hewitt said.

Purchasing the complex at Katella Avenue and Lewis Street is Chapman’s latest move to address student housing – part of a commitment by President Daniele Struppa to house at least 50 percent of its undergraduate students in school housing, getting them out of Orange neighborhoods where residents have increasingly complained about party houses and students being bad neighbors.

Including Katella Grand, Chapman will add 1,302 new beds in the next two years – bringing the school to an expected 54 percent of undergraduates housed by 2019 and meeting Struppa’s goal, Hewitt said.

More housing does not mean an immediate influx of additional students. The school’s enrollment is capped at 8,700 by an agreement with the city. Conversations to increase that limit were paused in 2015 as the school made several moves to improve its relationship with the community amid the rising tensions over the behavior of students living off-campus in Old Towne.

In a written statement Monday, the Old Towne Preservation Association applauded Chapman’s acquisition.

With the purchase of the Katella Grand complex, the school will put aside plans to overhaul its Panther Village near the 5 Freeway. It had purchased for $6.5 million adjacent property from the city of Orange to expand. Hewitt said it makes more sense to make immediate use of Katella Grand, and instead use the extra property for much-needed parking for now.

“Panther Village will continue as it currently exists, we’re not going to proceed there immediately,” Hewitt said, adding the school will in the future want additional housing at the village to push beyond its housing commitment. “At 50 percent, we still have a need for additional housing.”