University of Utah trustees greenlight public-private student housing project

The University of Utah took another significant step Tuesday to transition what has historically been a commuter campus to a residential campus.

The university’s trustees voted to authorize the university to enter a public-private partnership with the nation’s largest developer, owner and manager of high-quality student housing communities to create 1,450 additional beds of student housing on campus.

It is anticipated that the student housing facility, to be built on the corner of Mario Capecchi and South Campus drives, will be completed by the fall of 2026.

The developer, American Campus Communities of Austin, Texas, has about 200 projects on both public and private universities across the country, said John Creer, the university’s chief real estate officer.

“So this is not a minor group,” Creer told the university’s board of trustees.

Under the agreement, American Campus Communities will use its funds to build the 350,000 square-foot facility and “assume a lot of the risk,” he said. The land and building will belong to the university.

“There’s a lot of development and occupancy risk when you’re in the housing business, and they assume that 100%.”

The university will be responsible for operating and paying for a 17,000 square foot “amenity space,” which will include a gaming hub and a fitness area.

The university will enter a 55-year, renewable ground lease with American Campus Communities. The project cost of the housing is about $155 million. The cost of the amenities space that is the responsibility of the university will be about $12 million. Additionally, about $3 million is being spent on planned infrastructure improvements at the site along with site preparation directly related to the project.

“So we’re basically delivering a site with some upgraded utilities that we needed,” Creer said.

Local partners for the project will include Okland Construction and MHTN Associates of Salt Lake City. Ayers Saint Gross Architects headquartered in Baltimore is also a partner.

“The experience is really important to us because we want it to be interconnected with Lassonde (Studios), with Kahlert (Village), so you can move around and have kind of an open, porous student experience as you move around these neighborhoods, in and out of these projects,” Creer said.

Olympic Games housing?

Looking forward to the 2034 Winter Games recently awarded to Salt Lake City by the International Olympic Committee, the university and American Campus Communities have agreed to conditions should the facility be used to house athletes during the Games.

“We wanted to make sure that we didn’t have an asset sitting in the middle of a group of housing that isn’t part of it, because all of a sudden you start to think, ‘How do you even run security? How do you even do all those things?’

“So they’ve agreed that upon our request, we say to them, ‘Hey, we’re going to empty you out, fill it full of Olympic athletes and that will make you whole on your economics.’ ... Our position was, we’re not going to make you rich. We’ll make you whole,” Creer said.

Other issues are still being negotiated, he said. “I’ve never had an Olympian live at my house, so I have no idea what kind of tenants they are. If they go in and beat up the place and break stuff, it’s on us to repair and bring it back,” he said.

Housing’s role in goals

According to documents presented to the trustees, “These new facilities will address the lack of on-campus housing supply, waitlists and undersupply of private market student housing as well as help the university reach its goals of 40,000 student enrollment and all first-year undergraduates living on campus.”

Mitzi Montoya, the University of Utah’s provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, said preliminary numbers indicate that the university will have a record enrollment of 36,000 students this fall.

Doubling on-campus housing is one of University of Utah President Taylor Randall’s key initiatives for the state’s flagship institution to achieve national recognition as a top-tier public research university.

Parking challenges

The 2.9-acre lot where the housing will be built has been used as parking for residents of Kahlert Village. Dating back to the university’s 2008 master plan, however, it was designated for future housing, Creer said.

Still, there has been considerable pushback on the displacement of some 350 parking spots.

“This feels like we’re moving the wrong direction. Again, from a master planning standpoint, I’ll tell you a bias. I’m OK with the campus being a walking campus, I really am, and for a lot of the parking to be on the outside, on the periphery. I just worry, are we thinking hard enough about parking?” said trustee Randy Shumway.

The trustees directed the university’s Real Estate and Student Experience officials to work on parking, dining and other issues related to campus development over the next two months.