The Statehouse Highline and Highline on 9th buildings on Thursday, both located off of High Street and 9th Avenue. Credit: Daniel Bush | Campus Photo Editor
For upperclassmen seeking off-campus housing, apartment-living in the University District can be hard to come by — making reliability a deciding factor within choosing who to sign a lease with.?
StateHouse Highline notified students March 11 in an email obtained by The Lantern that as a result of a separate master lease agreement, expanding StateHouse’s Lane and Norwich master leases with Ohio State, leases signed for the 2026-2027 term would be terminated.?
As an alternate housing option, StateHouse offered students the possibility of transferring their lease to its other locations.?
“We are excited to offer our future Highline residents priority access and exclusive incentives to transfer their upcoming residency to our premier sister communities: StateHouse Varsity or StateHouse Highline on 9th,” StateHouse said in the email.?
StateHouse claimed this option would provide students with different benefits and flexible living options that were not previously available.
“Our goal is to ensure you continue to enjoy a top-notch living experience at our StateHouse communities, and to make this as seamless of a process as possible,” StateHouse said.?
StateHouse Columbus did not respond for comment in time for publication.?
Sabrina Eisen, a second-year in marketing, said she was informed that her lease with StateHouse Highline would be terminated in a phone call from the company.?
“I was like, ‘How is that possible,” Eisen said. “They’re like, ‘It is in the leasing contract you signed. We’re able to put you in another location,’ but it’s more expensive, so they’re not going to honor the same pricing.”?
Eisen said her original lease with Highline was approximately $1,200 per month. The option that StateHouse gave her to sign with Varsity would have cost approximately $1,400 per month after receiving a $100 monthly discount.?
“They couldn’t even guarantee me a spot in the other location, too,” Eisen said. “There’s people that couldn’t even get into Varsity because they’re all out of the four-bed, four-bath [apartments].”?
Natalie Sprowl, a second-year in health sciences, said StateHouse did not do a good job of giving students proper notice of the termination of their lease agreements — the email was sent out to students two days before the start of spring break.
“Being so late in the housing process, they screwed a lot of people over,” Sprowl said. “You’re already making plans to go home. You’re not making plans to go tour other housing options. That wasn’t very accommodating. Also, too, just like the mental stress of it all.”?
After extending its master lease agreement with StateHouse, Ohio State expanded the deal after the university announced it would be temporarily closing Drackett and Taylor Towers for renovations, and permanently closing Jones Tower, per prior Lantern reporting.
In the email, StateHouse said its goal is to accommodate for underclassmen who are held to the two-year on-campus housing requirement, according to the email.?
Eisen said this sudden change was abrupt and confusing, and she called Ohio State Housing to learn more.?
“They don’t have enough room for people anymore, so they had to buy StateHouse Highline to make more room for the freshmen and sophomores,” Eisen said. “I was asking if it was possible, as an Ohio State student, to get that housing, and they said they don’t offer upperclassmen housing.”
Eisen said as a result of the lack of time she faced, she re-signed her lease to StateHouse Varsity.?
“I didn’t even want to, because it was more expensive,” Eisen said.?
Eisen said she felt pressured to re-sign her lease as quickly as possible, because of the limited amount of time she had to consider alternate housing options and make a decision.?
Sprowl said she chose to sign a new lease with an alternate housing company.?
“I have a positive outlook,” Sprowl said. “The rent that we have at this new place is cheaper. Parking is cheaper. The location is much better than Highline — it’s on 12th [Avenue]. So I’d say, from that perspective, it was a blessing in disguise that they practically kicked us out.”?
Sprowl said while she considers herself lucky, she feels for students who were unable to find housing that matched their previous expectations.?
“I know others who aren’t as lucky and have to split up from their roommates or have to live farther off from campus,” Sprowl said. “I’m still pretty disappointed in the way it went about. I feel like it was very abrupt, and we were given no notice of it. We were basically told we need to figure this out ourselves.”?
StateHouse said to best match students’ previous lease agreements, they guarantee premium floor plans and amenities, limited-time rent incentives and floor plan alignment if signing on with another StateHouse location. They also offer the option for a complete cancellation of lease agreements.?
“Our goal is to ensure you continue to enjoy a top-notch living experience at our StateHouse communities, and to make this as seamless of a process as possible,” StateHouse said. “We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but we are 100% committed to assisting you through this process.”?
The article was updated on April 5 at 2:21 p.m. to add that the new master lease agreement is in addition to two other StateHouse has with Ohio State.
The article was updated on April 3 at 4:39 p.m. to correct Eisen Sprowl’s name.
The article was updated on April 3 at 11:03 a.m. to correct the date the email was sent.
