The strategic plan for Residence Education and Housing Services, or REHS, slates the apartment complex for demolition as early as 2017 or as late as 2020 because the buildings are deteriorating.

“The date has been out there for quite a while,” said Ray Gasser, REHS senior associate director. “I don’t believe it will be a shock for a lot of people. It’s been talked about. If it’s closed in 2017, we can prepare all the residents that live over there for that reality.”

The MSU Board of Trustees will make the final decision as to whether the buildings will be demolished. It’s unclear when that will happen. If the board elects to tear them down, the board would also have to determine what to do with the land.

Gasser said REHS is at a point where it is looking at what the future holds and it’s not sure yet.

The design of the facility isn’t necessarily what people are looking for anymore, he said. Plus, the facility is past its viable lifespan. Renovating the buildings would be costly, and those costs would have to be passed on to residents.

“There’s a lot of off-campus options that are priced more competitively than it would be if it were to be renovated — right now, I think residents appreciate Spartan Village based on price and convenience factors,” Gasser said.

The apartment complex is located south of Service Road off Harrison Road.

There are about 1,000 apartments in the complex, about 90 percent of which are occupied. The occupants tend to be a mix of graduate students, staff, visiting scholars, undergraduate students and faculty, Gasser said.

“It’s really old. Maybe it’s not a bad thing to tear it down,” said Anusha Murthy, a Spartan Village resident and human resources and labor relations graduate student.

Murthy moved into her apartment in Spartan Village this semester and will stay there until 2015, she said.

Her main complaints were that the complex is old, the furniture isn’t the best and there are small bugs in her unit, she said. But she added that most residents don’t mind the complex.

She said she hopes they build new apartments in place of Spartan Village.

Kat Cooper, communications manager for REHS, said the buildings have outlived their useful life, and repair, maintenance and renovation have become cost-prohibitive. REHS doesn’t have a plan for phasing out the facilities since it’s several years away, but it will develop a plan to take to the Board of Trustees that has as little impact on residents as possible.

The department’s strategic plan says that Spartan Village generates a net profit of $1 million a year and has little debt, but the buildings no longer provide a viable experience, which is a top priority. Building maintenance also requires more investment.