MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia University will now assume full ownership of the University Place apartment complex in Morgantown after a settlement was reached over a lawsuit that was filed back in 2024.
The WVU Board of Governors announced via press release on Wednesday that a settlement was reached related to litigation concerning the Sunnyside complex and financing involving the university, WV Campus Housing, LLC, Downtown Campus Parking Associates, LLC, and Ryan C. Lynch announced a comprehensive negotiated resolution of the litigation and related disputes concerning University Place and its project financing.
According to the release, the settlement provides for dismissal with prejudice of the pending claims and counterclaims between the settling parties as well as mutual termination of the existing University Place ground lease and related subleases. The transfer of full ownership of the complex to WVU will include the retirement of the project financing through the agreed transaction, mutual releases, and a transition ‘intended to preserve University Place as an integral part of the WVU student housing inventory.’
Student residents of University Place, which is included as part of University Apartments, will see no changes to site operations as part of the ownership transfer.
University Place and University Park grew from public-private partnership concepts that Lynch presented to WVU beginning in the early 2010s where then accumulated around 60 parcels from more than a dozen property owners, that lead to more than 12 acres in strategic locations adjacent to WVU’s Downtown and Evansdale campuses.
University Place opened in 2015 as WVU-managed, on-campus upper-class housing with the University Place parking garage opening later that year.
The lawsuit which prompted the settlement, was originally filed by the WVU Board of Governors in 2024 after issues related to the restructuring of the University Place project loan began to arise. The restructuring included an agreement by WVU to close Arnold Hall and to convert approximately 450 beds in University Place’s South Tower from upper-class apartments into the first-year residence hall now known as Seneca Hall.
The lawsuit claimed that funds were being improperly transferred into and out of the project operating account, with claims ranging from breach of contract, fraud, aiding and abetting a tort, and negligence.
The settlement is a negotiated resolution of disputed claims and counterclaims. No court adjudicated the merits of either parties’ claims or counterclaims, and no party admits liability or wrongdoing.
The parties’ settlement does not amend, terminate, release, impair, or otherwise affect University Park at Evansdale, LLC, the University Park agreements, or Mr. Lynch’s ownership or economic interests in University Park.