The new student housing project that Illinois State University wants to build would also include a new dining venue and create a new southwest gateway to campus, newly released documents show.
ISU announced last week that it’s chosen Rhode Island developer Gilbane to lead the project, which would open in fall 2021 and address a shortage of on-campus housing. The price tag is between $92 million and $132 million, depending on the number of beds included in the project (between 834 and 1,230), according to documents obtained Friday by WGLT through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The documents also show the first look at a preliminary concept design for the project, with dining and mixed-use space on the ground floor and suites or pod-style housing on the floors above. It would be built on the vacant land along Main Street between the Student Fitness Center and Normal Fire Department headquarters. The concept design shows an open green space on the southwest corner of the site that Gilbane says would serve as a “new campus gateway.”
The primary architect would be Mackey Mitchell Architects, based in St. Louis. Gilbane would work with ISU on the final design.
Student Rates & Dining
The documents also reveal the rates students would pay. A traditional double would cost between $8,300 and $8,500, depending on how many beds are built. At Cardinal Court (the last new ISU housing project), an apartment-style double is $8,296 annually. A double/quad room in a traditional ISU residence hall is $5,334 annually.
In a follow-up letter to ISU in July, Gilbane explained its plans for a dining venue in the new complex. The residential-style dining venue would serve the residents of the building. There is also an “opportunity for a small retail dining concept, grab and go, and/or (convenience) store in the west wing facing Main Street,” Gilbane said in the letter.
“Given the nature and location of the site, our team recognizes the potential for capturing upper-division students walking from the south as well as faculty and staff working/parking in the southern end of the academic core,” Gilbane said.
The project will be a public-private partnership like the one that built Cardinal Court, which opened in 2012. Gilbane will work with investors to fund the project and ISU will lease the land to the investor(s) for a long-term period up to 30 years. Gilbane said that “based on the limited information provided in the (request for proposal), Gilbane currently believes a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) model would be the most cost-effective capital structure for the proposed project.”
In time, ISU will have the option to buy out the lease. (For example, ISU used the buyout option six years into the agreement and now fully owns and operates Cardinal Court.) No state funds, student fees, or tuition dollars are planned to be used for this project, ISU officials said.
In its original proposal in January, Gilbane said it had “relationships with several leading lenders (including Citi, M&T Bank, US Bank and Santander) and nonprofit conduits (including Provident Resources Group).” Gilbane said it would select a financing partner jointly with ISU.
Gilbane’s proposal touted the company’s experience with public-private partnerships—nearly 900 projects totaling over $37 billion over the past decade.
“While collaboration with the University is needed to confirm the preliminary set of assumptions our team used to develop the proceeding responses, we are confident a financially viable project that meets the University’s construction, revenue and affordability objectives is achievable,” Darin Early, Gilbane’s managing director and head of public-private partnerships, wrote in the letter to ISU in July.
The only other company to submit a proposal for the project was Texas-based American Campus Communities.
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