The University of Iowa folks who run the Iowa Center for Higher Education — the Board of Regents universities’ operation that took over the former AIB College of Business campus — plan to turn a dormitory into housing for interns working in Des Moines as part of a new program, Des Moines Internship Village.

The idea came from years of discussion between the Greater Des Moines Partnership and community leaders. The Partnership has a program for interns and also supports a variety of other internship efforts.

Partnership officials for years have heard from companies trying to find housing for student teachers and interns on extended visits to the capital city. It gets even tougher outside of summer.

“We are going to take the large dormitory building, Fenton Hall, and we’re going to turn it into an internship village for 150, maybe 250 college and university students starting this summer,” said Tom Rice, who is running the Iowa Center for Higher Education at the former campus of AIB College of Business. “So we’re going to have 150 interns from anywhere in the world, from any school, and these undergraduate interns can live there on a flexible lease basis.”

The building has 50 two-bedroom units and 36 with one bedroom. Any college or university student with a verified internship in Greater Des Moines can rent one, with a minimum stay of eight weeks in summer and 11 weeks for the fall and spring semesters. All units are furnished and have kitchens, private bathrooms, heat and air conditioning.

Rice said it will be cheaper to keep Fenton Hall open — and generating income — than to simply mothball it with the thought that the regents universities might need it sometime. It’s a break-even proposition, but any leftover cash will be used to keep up the campus, Rice added. Mainly, he said, the idea was to help the community fill a void.

“The beautiful thing is now a kid comes to town and where do they live?” Rice asked. “They get an apartment in West Des Moines. He may only need a three-month lease, but he has to sign for six months or a year.”

Mary Bontrager, the Partnership’s executive vice president of regional workforce development/education, said she talked to Rice even before AIB donated the campus to the University of Iowa about the possibility of UI managing some sort of housing for interns.

Grand View University provides some limited housing for part of the summer, Bontrager said. But the need was bigger, and called for a year-round solution. Only so many interns have friends or relatives in Des Moines or campus housing in the Des Moines area.

“We just knew we needed more options,” Bontrager said. “In addition, we need year-round options. Internships are so critical now in the cycle of training and recruitment students. Some internships are earlier in the cycle now. Some are even before they begin college.”

The lack of housing has limited many internships to summer, but the housing at the Iowa Center for Higher Education — along Fleur Drive and with hilltop views of downtown — should open things up a bit.

“What we have been hearing from communities is they just need more options so they can recruit from other schools and from those who don’t have ties here,” Bontrager said. “This opens it up to individuals who might not have considered Central Iowa for an internship. I think we are going to see tremendous increase in interns coming that we may have missed otherwise.”

Rice said even without advertising the rooms, he’s had inquiries from Wartburg College, the Iowa Cubs, MidAmerican Energy Co. and several state agencies.

Wartburg already plans to send several students to the Des Moines campus.

Wartburg has offered urban studies in Denver, Colo., for decades, but a year ago decided to offer the same type of experience in Des Moines.

“It made sense that we would choose a location within two hours of campus and also attempt to keep good minds in Iowa after graduation,” said Jo Lynn Dorrance, internship coordinator for the programs. “It also made sense that students would benefit from the mentoring of alumni in Des Moines, since we have the largest population in Des Moines over anywhere else.”

Dorrance said the Des Moines Internship Village program offers a great combination of a location near downtown, secure housing, workout facilities and a chance to learn from students from all over.

“Most importantly, our student population will benefit from living with students from other institutions from around Iowa and maybe even around the country” or beyond, Dorrance said. “We feel strongly this makes for a wonderful, shared purpose and ensures our students are living with age-appropriate neighbors. We’ve also discussed with Tom the potential for expanded partnerships in the future, whether it shared classes or possibly service opportunities in the area.”

Dorrance hopes to have 20 students a term at the site eventually. “We hope Internship Village will be just one piece of the puzzle as we continue to offer our students options for study off-campus and providing them with the tools to be competitive in the job market when they graduate,” she said. “We will have met our goal when we have a robust group of students living in Internship Village each term completing their internship, student teaching or completing their final social work requirement. We hope to have Waverly faculty embedded in Des Moines and to work with partners such as the University of Iowa.”

Rice said it’s entirely possible that interns may decide to take classes at the Des Moines campus, which now features University of Iowa offerings and may later have classes from Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa.