By an 8-4 vote last night, the Jonesboro City Council approved rezoning land that will house a 20 million dollar student housing complex near Arkansas State University. The complex would be located on East Johnson Avenue near Arkansas State University. Representatives from Zimmer Development Company said they plan to place several buildings on 15 acres of land on East Johnson Avenue. The new development will be called University Woods and is to be built in two phases. The first phase would consist of six buildings and would house 432 beds in 144 units. The second phase would consist of four buildings containing over 100 units and 290 additional beds. The facilities are being called upscale living quarters for students and would have on-site security. The council stated in the amended order that the housing could only be for use by students and faculty, and that extra security provisions would be required to be part of the complex.
Johnathan Reaves is the News Director for KASU Public Radio. As part of an Air Force Family, he moved to Arkansas from Minot, North Dakota in 1986. He was first bitten by the radio bug after he graduated from Gosnell High School in 1992. While working on his undergraduate degree, he worked at KOSE, a small 1,000 watt AM commercial station in Osceola, Arkansas. Upon graduation from Arkansas State University in 1996 with a degree in Radio-Television Broadcast News, he decided that he wanted to stay in radio news. He moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas and worked for East Arkansas Broadcasters as news director and was there for 16 years.