Campus officials will take the next step in the 14-year, multimillion-dollar Stanley O. Ikenberry Commons construction project, pending the approval of an $80 million phase by the Board of Trustees on Thursday at its meeting in Urbana.

As part of a major initiative by University Housing to replace the “Six Pack” residence halls, campus officials will recommend that the trustees approve funding for a third residence hall in the new complex.

The next phase in the project calls for building a residence hall at the current site of Forbes Hall, demolishing the Taft and Van Doren halls and installing a new stormwater system for the west playing fields on First Street.

The 155,000-square-foot hall — for which construction is scheduled to commence in 2014 and be completed about two years later — will house just under 500 students, said Michael Bass, senior associate vice president and deputy comptroller, at the board’s Audit, Budget, Finance and Facilities Committee meeting on March 5.

University officials plan on initially funding the project through University Housing’s budget, which is partly composed of student housing fees. After a certain point, the project will be subsidized by revenue bonds.

This is the next part of the project that is designed to replace all the Champaign residence halls that has a determined completion date. The first portion that was completed in 2010 included the Student Dining and Residential Programs building and a part of Nugent Hall. The full completion date for Nugent is by Fall 2012.

Garner Hall will come down this summer, before Nugent is completed.

A new residence hall currently being built on the corner of Peabody Drive and First Street is scheduled to open in Fall 2013. Shortly before that six-story, suite-style hall opens, Forbes Hall will be demolished to make way for the third hall that will be located near the corner of Gregory Drive and First Street. Kirsten Ruby, assistant director of Housing for marketing, said the hall has not been designed yet.

Ruby said the discussions of the renovation project that date back to the late 1990s reflect University Housing’s efforts to meet student needs, most notably individualized temperature control, including air conditioning — a complaint of many students during the warmer months.

“(The buildings) have outlived their useful life. They can’t be retrofitted in any way that is sustainable. And to add air conditioning just isn’t an option; they don’t have the infrastructure,” Ruby said. “It’s a better value and better on the environment to tear down (the residence halls).”

The opening of Nugent Hall marked the University’s first new residence hall in over 40 years.

Also at Thursday’s meeting, the board will present former secretary Michele Thompson with the Trustees’ Distinguished Service Medallion, created to recognize individuals who have made contributions to the University of “unusual significance.” Thompson retired at the end of January after serving as the board’s secretary for over 21 years – a stretch where she served four presidents and dozens of trustees.