In response to concerns from sororities about the aging of the Panhellenic Building (opened in 1964) and the need for more space for their members than suites in the Panhellenic Building provided, the 2001 update of the 1994 Master Plan for Facilities envisioned a new student area to be developed along the entire length of Terrace Avenue. Sororities and UT agreed to develop a plan for nonresidential townhouses beginning at the intersection of Terrace and Twentieth Streets and extending east along Terrace.
During the planning process for the townhouses, UT found that it would not be possible to acquire the Terrace Avenue property owned by the Seventh Day Adventist Church and advanced plans for a multistory condominium building located to the east of that property. UT razed the houses and excavated the site of the proposed single building. It became clear that the building would be an expensive one, requiring extensive retaining walls. The width of the site hampered corridor width and movement throughout the building when large numbers of people were present; the rooms would cost a million dollars or more; some sort of exterior elevator arrangement would be required for movement from parking to the facility; and the final product would not meet the needs expressed by the sororities.
The sororities, led by Delta Delta Delta and their spokesperson Judy Bass Hollow, made clear that the current plan was not acceptable. Delta Delta Delta formally requested land upon which to build a freestanding, residential house, and other sororities followed. The residential aspect of the houses would provide a revenue source for repaying mortgage agreements. Work on the Terrace Avenue location was halted.
The university evaluated all of its campus property to ascertain where 13 residential houses, parking for residents, and an administrative building that could provide a Panhellenic Affairs office and meeting space could be located. Working with Bullock Smith and Partners on issues of acreage required, access, floodplain restrictions, and the like, UT announced in October 2006 that the 21-acre site at Morgan Hill, across from the Welcome Center, had been chosen.
The board of trustees approved the site location and $45 million project at its November 2006 meeting, and the State Building Commission approved the project in 2007. Each of the 14 sororities participating in the project was required to have a financial pro forma approved by UT. Thirteen sororities elected to build residential houses, ranging in size from eight thousand to fourteen thousand square feet and in price from approximately $3 million to $5 million. One sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, elected a nonresidential accommodation and was joined with the UT administration and meeting facility to be located at the site. AKA paid for the build-out of its space. UT paid a portion of the sorority village infrastructure costs, as it had done for fraternity park, defraying $1.4 million of the approximately $4 million, which included installation of geothermal wells and other utilities, roads, parking, and site preparation. Ground was broken on the project on May 3, 2011.
Sorority chapters funded their chapter houses in full through private contributions and mortgage agreements to be paid through residential rent and chapter fees. At the time the decision was made to build houses, UT and Auburn were the only two SEC schools that did not have sorority housing.
During the construction process, two contractors, Nashville-based TG Constructors and Jolley Construction of Chattanooga defaulted. TG Constructors was building the Phi Mu and the Alpha Omicron Pi houses, and the projects were reassigned to Hickory Construction of Alcoa. The Phi Mu house was substantially complete and required few remedial repairs, but the AOPi house was only 40 percent complete, with a faulty roof, at the time of default. The insurer for TG Constructors was Great American Insurance Company. Delays escalated because of disagreements about liability, and the AOPi house’s completion was delayed until summer 2014. Jolley Construction of Chattanooga defaulted on three houses—Alpha Delta Pi, Kappa Delta, and Sigma Kappa. The buildings were substantially complete at the time of default and were finished without major delays.
On April 13, 2013, a dedication of Sorority Village and of Ann Baker Furrow Boulevard, the main street leading into the development, was held.