Comments on: Debt-Restricted, Campuses Seek Private Investment for New Housing

By: Alexander Cooke

Alexander Cooke — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 04:44:13 +0000

The University of Toronto has always been a little creative when it comes to residences. For a few years, about a decade ago, they rented space for 250 undergrads at a nearby Best Western—they had made a commitment to house all first years, and simply didn’t have any more space of their own. Unfortunately the hotel was not in a particularly good area, and was infested with bed bugs.

Later they actually bought an entire 28-story hotel behind city hall for about $70M and made it an official residence. It’s a little far from campus, but they kept the chef on. I don’t know if the revolving restaurant still revolves.

By: Pierre

Pierre — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 04:43:54 +0000

Hey guys, Pierre here, your CFO (aka “ze VP”).

We have looked at the P3 model for housing in the past. The bottom line was that FOR UBC, this delivery did not make much sense. Costs were higher (driven by risk premium, private partner margin and cost of borrowing), and additional management complexity would be introduced as well. The UBC model on the other end (UBCPT develops at no profit, UBC operates and maintain effectively, our credit rating is excellent, and we have both scale and excellent management) works well. Except… that we need to access more debt indeed.

We are having in-depth conversations with the government on how to best achieve that, and P3 delivery is not on my list, not because of ideology but because of pragmatism.

I will update you when we know a bit more, likely in the fall. In the mean time, we are continuing to aggressively plan for the first hub – Ponderosa – to respond to Student feedback and the (still) huge demand out there.

By: ~~SEXY BRUNETTE~~

~*~SEXY BRUNETTE~*~ — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 04:43:27 +0000

i really liked this article, and the style/tone of it. kudos.

By: Pierce

Pierce — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 04:43:11 +0000

From what I know of, continental European universities have a mix of privately and university run student dorms scattered throughout their cities (not clustered next to the university, which invariably creates a prison). However I believe Germany is the exception. From what I’ve read and heard from my German friends, it is the national or local Student Union’s responsibility for dorms.

A lot of American universities have co-operative housing – most notably the Berkley Student Cooperative which houses 1,300 students – but unfortunately the only thing red about Canadians are the flags, so this is a non-starter.

By: Dan Pagan

Dan Pagan — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 04:42:53 +0000

Someone mentioned that the Mount Royal University and the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary, used the P3 model for residence buildings along with several public and private universities/colleges in U.S.