Spokane-based Leone & Keeble Inc. has started construction under a $15.6 million contract to build a 350-bed residence hall at Eastern Washington University in the northwest area of the school's Cheney campus.

The five-story, 101,000-square-foot building is estimated to cost $25 million overall, including equipment, furnishings, and other expenses.

The residence hall is being built north of the University Recreation Center on what used to be a parking lot at 10th Avenue and Cedar Street. EWU's board of trustees approved the sale of bonds to finance the project.

The structure is expected to be completed by fall 2013.

ALSC Architects PS, of Spokane, designed the building, which will have common areas and the EWU Housing and Residential Life administrative office on the first floor.

For living quarters, the structure will have a total of 172 rooms, including double- and triple-occupancy rooms. Other amenities of the new hall will include a great room with a gas fireplace, full kitchens on every floor, a covered front porch, study areas, and game rooms.

The building's construction is concrete and wood, framed with masonry brick and metal panel veneer.

Leone & Keeble also is the general contractor on the $30.5 million final phase of EWU's big overhaul of Patterson Hall, the campus's main academic building, and had been the contractor on the $12.2 million first phase of that project, which it completed in the summer of 2010.

That early work included the demolition of all but the building's foundation and structural framework, as well as the relocation of utilities to trenches outside of the building. It also included the construction of a three-story, 34,000-square-foot addition around three sides of the original building.

The final phase of work that started last summer includes the reconstruction of the building's north face, the installation of mechanical and electrical systems, and interior finish work throughout the building. The project is expected to be completed as early as January of 2014, says Dave Meany, a EWU spokesman.

When completed, Patterson Hall will have a total 135,500 square feet of floor space.