Photo courtesy of JLL

Suffolk University plans to house up to 280 students in a former downtown boutique hotel it purchased for $61.7 million last month.

The number was revealed in documents the school filed with the Boston Planning & Development Agency on Monday. The building at 1 Court St. was built in the late 1800s and is one of Boston’s first skyscrapers.

The 5,428-student university wants to offer on-campus housing to 50 percent of its undergraduates. It currently provides 1,607 beds, the documents state, while it aims to grow its undergraduate student body to 5,712 by the 2029-2030 school year. Right now, 1,753 full-time undergraduate students – half the total number of off-campus students – live in rental housing in various Boston neighborhoods.

The documents make clear the school is looking to work with “external parties to identify and develop sites for additional student housing,” including a replacement for a 368-student leased dormitory space at 1047 Commonwealth Ave. in Allston. The school regards that building, which features micro-apartments with a variety of two- and three-bedroom apartments, as a “short-term, temporary solution,” the document states. Alongside these development efforts, the school is looking to add beds to its existing residence halls. The school is also looking for opportunities to add lab spaces for its science and technology programs.

Suffolk is a major presence in downtown Boston, as the owner or lessor of about 1.5 million square feet in 13 buildings, according to its filing Monday. This is up from about 1.35 million square feet in 2008. Only about 7 percent of its current space is leased, and around 558,000 square feet of that is dedicated to residential uses.