Privatized housing
explored at UH
A proposal would replace rather
than restore aging buildings
Connie O'Brien, a student at California State University-San Marcos, raves about the privately built and managed dorm on campus.
 UH-Manoa housing
UH regents will consider a proposal to build private dorms on the Manoa campus to replace the Gateway House, Frear Hall and Johnson Halls dorms. A look at the 3,000 total student beds currently on campus:
Hale Aloha complex: 1,064 beds
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The two-bedroom or four-bedroom apartments cost each student between $525 and $660 a month, including utilities, TV, and high-speed Internet, she said. Each room has a kitchen and living room; there are also common area study rooms, meetings rooms, even a game room with pool tables and an Xbox.
Tomorrow, University of Hawaii regents will hear about how dorms like Cal State-San Marcos' $28 million University Village project could be built at UH-Manoa with private investment, rather than taxpayer funds.
At stake is a potentially lucrative contract for tens of millions of dollars in student housing construction.
Already, about 15 to 20 companies, both national and local, have approached the university about developing new student housing on campus, said Jan Yokota, UH director of capital improvements.
There hasn't been a new dorm built on the Manoa campus since 1978, and the aging buildings are in need of millions of dollars in repair and maintenance. One early estimate suggested that it would cost at least $34 million to modernize just Frear Hall, Yokota said.
Yokota will be giving an informational presentation to the regents at their monthly meeting in Hilo tomorrow. If the regents like the idea, a request for qualifications could be approved as early as next month and developers could be submitting proposals early next year.
New or renovated dorms could be ready to open at Manoa as early as 2007 at the current site of Frear Hall, Gateway House and Johnson halls, Yokota said.
The university is studying whether it makes more sense to renovate Frear, Gateway and Johnson or to tear them down to build completely new student housing and is surveying student housing needs statewide.
Private management of dorms is also a possibility, Yokota said.
Allen & O'Hara, the company that built and runs University Village at Cal State-San Marcos, is "definitely interested" in UH, said company Vice President Bill Harris. He said Allen & O'Hara is talking with local architects and builders about partnering on a bid.
"A lot of states are having trouble providing money to fulfill university's needs," Harris said. "It's a very active area right now all across the country with schools turning to the private sector."
Capstone Development Corp., another industry leader, is also planning on bidding should the regents approve the idea.
Capstone Chief Operating Officer John Vawter said: "I think the potential is excellent. The campus has a need to renovate a number of the facilities and depending on the demand study, there is a potential for building new beds on the other campus as well."
But the idea of privatizing dorms is controversial among student housing professionals.
The University of Oregon looked at privately built and/or managed dorms before deciding to manage the project in-house, said Mike Eyster, housing director at the University of Oregon.
"I believe that the closer the function is to the mission of the university, the less sense it makes to privatize," Eyster said.
The $27 million, 383-bed "Living-Learning Center" is scheduled to open next year and is being financed by state-backed bonds, which will be repaid through housing fees.
Eyster said the University of Oregon also believes private donations to the university foundation will help pay for construction.
"The other thing to think about is if a university can afford to do it and can charge room and board rates sufficient to pay back the bonds, then why should a private company make profit on the arrangement?" he added.
Alan Hargrave, director of student housing at Ball State University and a vice president of the Association of College and University Housing Officers, said privately built dorms can be a good option for some universities.
But he said a better option is for universities to do better at managing their housing funds and resist the temptation to raid student housing money for other purposes.
Vawter and Harris say private companies can build and manage dorms more efficiently than public entities.
"We bring private market efficiencies and economies to both construction and operations," Harris said.
Both companies are also looking at building private student housing off campus, something that would not require approval by the regents.
It's already happening on Maui, where a California developer is looking to purchase land near Maui Community College to build private student housing.
www.hawaii.edu
