What they say about real estate holds true for college dormitories: location is everything.

For the nearly 3,000 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students who reside at Sandburg Hall, convenience is a way of life. The four-tower complex, situated on the north side of the campus at 3400 N. Maryland Ave., contains a coffee shop (Grind), convenience store, cafeteria, laundry facilities and a location across the street from the library and an easy jaunt to just about every important building on the compact campus.

Newly-opened RiverView Hall simply can't compete with that.

Or, can it?

RiverView, the sparkling $25 million dorm that opened in January at 2340 N. Commerce St., is about 1.5 miles from heart of campus. With a capacity of 488, the new facility features its own coffee shop, convenience store, laundry facilities, spectacular views of the Milwaukee River and three classrooms in the lower level.

On blustery winter days, some RiverView residents -- most of whom are freshmen -- can head to class without putting on a jacket.

"It's a living, learning community," said Scott Peak, UWM's director of university housing. "We're very excited about it."

Peak said that RiverView, which was slated to open last September before some construction delays pushed that back, has about 380 students and full-time staff in place and is sold out for next fall.

"You have to go through a bit of a paradigm shift," Peak said. "We have a 92-acre campus, and everything is compact. You can get anywhere you want to go really quickly. At many campuses, normal activity is really spread out. Students have to ride shuttle buses and use public transportation to get to different buildings."

RiverView students, as well as the upperclassmen and graduate students who reside at the Kenilworth Square complex to the east, take advantage of shuttle buses to get to campus.

"Our transportation system has two buses running during the daytime and they stop (at RiverView) every 15 minutes," Peak said. "We drop them off right by the library and it's about a 10- to 15-minute trip."

RiverView offers parking for 62 cars, but Peak said that residents can participate in the Flexcar program, a car-sharing service available to students and faculty who can use vehicles for about $7 an hour.

"If our students want to go to Mayfair Mall, they can step right outside, get on the 21 bus and take the trip up North Avenue," Peak said. "Or, they can get a couple people together, use a Flexcar for a few hours and go that way. It's a great program."

The setup at RiverView is similar to Sandburg because students are housed in suites that feature double-occupancy rooms and a shared bathroom.

"We don't have the traditional housing, where you have a row of rooms and 20 or 40 people sharing a common shower," Peak said.

Unlike the suites at Kenilworth and Sandburg's East Tower, the rooms at RiverView do not include kitchenettes. There is, however, a kitchen facility in the lower level that students can reserve for special baking or cooking needs.

Each floor at RiverView features a lounge with a flat-screen TV. Some of the lounges have exercise equipment and all feature great views of the river and North Avenue to the east and Downtown Milwaukee to the south.

There is also a common dining area with a cafeteria, a terrace overlooking the river and several gathering areas for students including the Grind coffee shop, which along with the first-floor convenience store, will soon open to the general public.

"The idea is to get them out of their rooms so they can interact with other students," Peak said. "We don't want them hiding out. That's the idea behind the living community."

That community is why UWM decided to house freshmen "off campus" as opposed to upperclassmen.

"People questioned that," Peak said. "By putting freshmen here, we've got them captured, in a sense, and we can get them oriented into the campus and into the classrooms."

One of the things freshmen have to get used to is doing their own laundry. RiverView residents do it in a state of the art facility in the lower level.

"We used to have one washer and dryer for every two floors at Sandburg," Peak said. "We got out of the laundry business a few years ago. The venting was horrible and it was a pain in the rear to use tickets. We put in big laundry centers at the base of North Tower and the basement of East Tower. We have a company come in and install everything."

Students can use their meal cards to operate the machines, can check a Web site to see which machines are available and can even get an e-mail when their cycle is done."

"It has been a great thing for us," Peak said.

Although some Riverwest residents initially resisted the construction of RiverView, which was funded by the UWM Foundation, Peak expects the students to blend into the community.

"The city has so much to offer," he said. "There are restaurants, shops and art galleries within close proximity. We have the river right next door and the bike path. It's a great location."