University of Iowa junior Tiffany Nichols was going to be homeless for two days between her old and new apartment leases, but her nomadic stint has just been extended.

Nichols and other tenants who have signed leases to live in the Lodge - a new four-building, off-campus, private student housing community - will not be able to move in Monday as originally planned. Officials have pushed the first move-in date to Wednesday because of a conflict in scheduling the required state inspections.

"We were competing with the State Fair," said Diane Lawson, vice president of Callaway Properties, about why state officials were delayed in inspecting the elevators. "But the move date has always been tentative. We faced a lot of weather challenges."

The San Antonio-based Callaway Development Corp. is developing the project on about 23 acres north of Highway 1 and west of Riverside Drive. It has 201 apartments with a total of 561 bedrooms. The student-oriented complex, renting by bedroom and not apartment unit, offers one-, two- and four-room apartments with bathrooms, furnishings and a slew of other amenities.

Lawson said officials have made storage and hotel accommodations for those who had planned to move in Sunday, including Nichols. Nichols, 20, of Bloomington, Ill., is leasing one of four bedrooms in an apartment with Lindsey Derby, 20, Ryan Donkersloot, 25, and a tenant not yet named. Although Donkersloot plans to remain with his parents in Mt. Pleasant until Aug. 4, Nichols and Derby will begin staying at the Best Western Cantebury Inn & Suites in Coralville on Sunday.

"It's not a big problem since they are accommodating us, but it's still an inconvenience," Nichols said Friday, adding that she wasn't surprised by the delay. "Just driving by, you can tell it's not ready."

In addition to hotel accommodations, Nichols said the Lodge is providing space in the covered parking garage to store much of her clothes, books and other living necessities.

"They said it was guarded," she said. "But it's still an inconvenience."

Donkersloot said he doesn't mind the delay. He has been staying with his family since returning in April from a one-year stint in Iraq with the Iowa City-based 109th Medical Battalion of the Iowa National Guard, and said he can wait a couple of extra days.

Of the four residential buildings, two are ready for tenants and the other two are planned for completion after schools starts, Lawson said. The Lodge's club house also also is finished and will provide a heated spa and sauna, study lounges, indoor basketball courts, fitness center, conference space, tanning rooms, media room, game room, locker room with showers and a computer lab.

Lawson would not disclose the number of rented units but said officials are excited about the project's popularity.

"We have achieved our expectations of leasing," she said. The Lodge will begin Sept. 1 to sign tenants for the next school year, and officials anticipate leasing to continue throughout the year. "The numbers change on a daily basis. We've been very successful."

Each unit is fully furnished, has an energy efficient kitchen, high-speed Internet and access to the clubhouse and parking facilities. Wednesday, as residents begin moving in, Lawson said there will be people to help tenants move and refreshments provided by local businesses.

"Oh my gosh, we're ecstatic," Nichols said about living at the Lodge. "But it's hard to look forward to right now since we don't really know when we're going to get in."