Private bids on dorms to begin
Kristi Tousignant
Issue date: 8/29/07 Section: News
The university is seeking bids on one or two new Commons-style apartment buildings for South Campus, a first step in the school's plan to cope with an unprecedented demand for housing.
While not expected to solve the housing crunch, the new buildings should bring about 400 more beds to the campus by fall 2009, said Vice President for Student Affairs Pat Mielke. She expects the additional units will mean that fewer rooms intended for two students will be converted into crowded triples, which the university has resorted to in recent years.
The new buildings - one to go up where Lot U7 is along Knox Road and another on a piece of land north of the Mowatt Lane Parking Garage - will feature apartment-style rooms similar to the Commons.
"We need more housing." Vice President for Administrative Affairs Doug Duncan said. "We had students demonstrating last year about need for more housing."
Duncan was referring to the "tent city" erected by the Student Government Association last semester to protest what they saw as the role the Board of Regents played in exacerbating the housing shortage.
After the Regents turned down pleas for state-funded housing last summer, the university sought an alternative route. The school approached the board this summer with plans for buildings to be constructed through public-private partnerships and the board approved the plan in June.
Public-private partnerships have been successful with the university in the past, a category which includes the South Campus Commons and the University Courtyards. In public-private partnerships the university provides land to a private developer who in turn pays for construction and assumes the financial risk.
With a budget of $34 million, a committee called the Request for Proposal, has organized to draft a request for developers to come in and build on the designated sites. The developer will be given free reign as far as design, but will be required by RFP guidelines to mirror the quality and amenities of the Commons and to fit the buildings in with the overall look of the campus.
The proposal set to go out Sept. 15, and the RFP hopes to pick a developer by Thanksgiving. After the chosen developer submits a final design and obtains the necessary permits, the regents and the Board of Public Works will again be asked for approval with hopes for construction starting next summer.
Though the RFP hopes the buildings will be completed by fall 2009, with the tight schedule for the building process, Duncan says that the university would be prepared for completion date to slip back to early 2010.
"We are trying to be as aggressive as possible to try to get the project moving along," Mike Glowacki, assistant to the director of Resident Life and RFP member, said.
The public-private developments are not expected to solve the housing shortage, RFP members say, but the group sees the construction as a step in the right direction.
"It's going to help. It's not the end of the road though," Glowacki said.
tousignantdbk@gmail.com.
While not expected to solve the housing crunch, the new buildings should bring about 400 more beds to the campus by fall 2009, said Vice President for Student Affairs Pat Mielke. She expects the additional units will mean that fewer rooms intended for two students will be converted into crowded triples, which the university has resorted to in recent years.
The new buildings - one to go up where Lot U7 is along Knox Road and another on a piece of land north of the Mowatt Lane Parking Garage - will feature apartment-style rooms similar to the Commons.
"We need more housing." Vice President for Administrative Affairs Doug Duncan said. "We had students demonstrating last year about need for more housing."
Duncan was referring to the "tent city" erected by the Student Government Association last semester to protest what they saw as the role the Board of Regents played in exacerbating the housing shortage.
After the Regents turned down pleas for state-funded housing last summer, the university sought an alternative route. The school approached the board this summer with plans for buildings to be constructed through public-private partnerships and the board approved the plan in June.
Public-private partnerships have been successful with the university in the past, a category which includes the South Campus Commons and the University Courtyards. In public-private partnerships the university provides land to a private developer who in turn pays for construction and assumes the financial risk.
With a budget of $34 million, a committee called the Request for Proposal, has organized to draft a request for developers to come in and build on the designated sites. The developer will be given free reign as far as design, but will be required by RFP guidelines to mirror the quality and amenities of the Commons and to fit the buildings in with the overall look of the campus.
The proposal set to go out Sept. 15, and the RFP hopes to pick a developer by Thanksgiving. After the chosen developer submits a final design and obtains the necessary permits, the regents and the Board of Public Works will again be asked for approval with hopes for construction starting next summer.
Though the RFP hopes the buildings will be completed by fall 2009, with the tight schedule for the building process, Duncan says that the university would be prepared for completion date to slip back to early 2010.
"We are trying to be as aggressive as possible to try to get the project moving along," Mike Glowacki, assistant to the director of Resident Life and RFP member, said.
The public-private developments are not expected to solve the housing shortage, RFP members say, but the group sees the construction as a step in the right direction.
"It's going to help. It's not the end of the road though," Glowacki said.
tousignantdbk@gmail.com.
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