A few years from now, University of Hawaii students and faculty should have a very different option for living on the school’s flagship Manoa campus.

UH officials are advancing a plan to develop new apartments with below-market rental rates serving individuals and families in a project that could produce the tallest building on campus.

The envisioned apartments with their own bathrooms and kitchenettes and, possibly, partial furnishings contrast with existing student housing on the Manoa campus almost entirely comprising dorms with communal bathrooms.

A child-care facility and retail spaces are also part of the plan aimed at serving more than 400 primarily graduate students along with junior faculty in two connected towers.

“It’s a different type of product and amenity for UH students,” said Kalbert Young, chief financial officer of the university. “It won’t be like a conventional, traditional dormitory.”

Planning for the estimated $110 million project dates back more than five years, and construction is expected to start a little over two years from now and be finished in 2025.

The roughly 10-year timetable is rather long but relates to UH’s strategy to have new affordable student housing built at no cost to the university or Hawaii taxpayers by enlisting a private developer to build, own and operate the facility on land leased from UH.

The opportunity for the project arose after the federal government conveyed to UH 2.2 acres of land formerly used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service at 2570 Dole St. between the East-West Center and Manoa Stream in 2015.

After studying different potential uses for the property, UH in 2018 issued a request for proposals from private developers to build student rental housing.

“We are seeking a high- quality project that offers below-market rental rates,” Jan Gouveia, UH vice president for administration, said in a statement at the time.

In May, UH announced tentatively selecting Greystar Real Estate Partners, the nation’s largest apartment operator.

The South Carolina-based firm manages 693,000 units, and two years ago became part owner of what was then a brand new $110 million collegiate housing tower called Hale Mahana Apartments in Moiliili via a $4.6 billion acquisition of that project’s co-owner, EdR Collegiate Housing.

Hale Mahana, a 14-story complex, has 195 units from studios to four-bedroom units to serve 590 tenants. Initial monthly rents ranged from $900 to $2,200 including furnishings and utilities, with units shared by occupants at the lower end.

Rental rates haven’t been projected yet for the UH project, but Young said the objective is to provide below­-market rates for comparable housing.

Compared with dorm space on campus, apartments in the planned UH project would cost more but offer dramatically different accommodations.

“It will not be the same, but it won’t be as cheap,” Young said.

Currently, the most expensive on-campus housing is Frear Hall at $800 a month. This dorm, the only one on campus with air-conditioning, was built in 2008 makai of the site planned for the new apartment tower complex.

Seven other student-­housing complexes on campus were built between 1958 and 1978.

In all, there are 3,654 housing units on the 305- acre campus that serves over 12,600 undergraduate students and 4,800 graduate students, according to UH.

Details of the new project, including a projected construction timetable, were disclosed in a recent draft environmental assessment.

The report said the project will include up to 400 “individual housing units.” Each unit represents a studio or a bedroom in apartments with up to three bedrooms that could host more than one person per bedroom.

The envisioned child-care facility would replace the existing Manoa Children’s Center on campus, which serves more than 100 children between 2 and 5 years old for parents who are UH students or employees.

The complex would comprise one tower no less than 12 stories and a second tower up to 18 stories connected by a two-story base. The tallest existing building on campus is a Hale Wainani housing tower at 14 stories. However, Young said the top of some shorter buildings further mauka on campus would be just as high as a new 18-story tower because the grade of the land slopes down toward Dole Street.

“We don’t want this building to stand up taller than other buildings around,” he said.

Some other details of the project are still to be determined through negotiations with Greystar, including a refined mix of apartment types, design elements, rental rates and long-term ground lease payments.