UNM Regents to Discuss New Residential Housing on Campus

The Board of Regents has given approval for four new res­i­den­tial hous­ing units on the UNM main cam­pus.   The hous­ing units will pro­vide 1,026 beds for fresh­men and are expected to be avail­able in fall 2012.  The cost of the project is pro­jected to be $34,716.388.

The new con­struc­tion will require the demo­li­tion of Santa Ana Hall and two Stu­dent Res­i­dence Cen­ter Units.  That is expected to begin in May at the end of the spring semester.

To view the new units visit: Pre­lim­i­nary designs.

The res­i­den­tial hous­ing units will be built by Amer­i­can Cam­pus Com­mu­ni­ties, which will also han­dle leas­ing of hous­ing and man­age­ment of the units when they are com­plete.  ACC says the units will be built to LEED Sil­ver stan­dards and there will an exten­sive pro­gram to divert at least 75 per cent of waste mate­ri­als from land­fills by sep­a­rat­ing on-site waste and hir­ing a com­pany to recy­cle materials.

Fresh­men will see res­i­dence life pro­grams that are sim­i­lar to the pro­grams offered in tra­di­tional UNM hous­ing.  UNM Vice Pres­i­dent for Stu­dent Affairs, Eliseo (Cheo) Tor­res said, “We have dis­cussed new res­i­den­tial hous­ing for stu­dents on this cam­pus for the last 15 years.  UNM stu­dents have vis­ited other cam­puses where ACC has built hous­ing units and are enthu­si­as­tic.”  He also said new res­i­den­tial hous­ing will help with recruit­ment and retention.

UNM is work­ing out a 40 year ground lease for the new res­i­dence halls.  ACC will pay UNM a set amount on an esca­lat­ing scale for the oppor­tu­nity to build and lease the res­i­dence halls.  The lease will require ACC to keep the build­ings in Class A con­di­tion and the com­pany will sub­mit annual repair plans.  The ground lease will spell out the con­di­tions for ACC to oper­ate on campus.

Exec­u­tive Vice Pres­i­dent for Finance and Admin­is­tra­tion David Har­ris says UNM has lim­ited options to build new res­i­dence hous­ing.  The New Mex­ico leg­is­la­ture will not allow state funds or gen­eral oblig­a­tion bonds to be used for res­i­dent hous­ing so UNM was left with the choice of float­ing uni­ver­sity rev­enue bonds or work­ing with a pri­vate com­pany in a part­ner­ship arrangement.

Lobo Vil­lage, an upper­class­men and grad­u­ate stu­dent apart­ment com­plex on the UNM South cam­pus is the first joint ven­ture between UNM and ACC.  It is near­ing com­ple­tion and stu­dents will now pro­vide 866 beds for upper­class­men and stu­dents will begin mov­ing into the facil­ity in August 2011, just in time for the fall semes­ter.  ACC says it is already 65 per­cent leased.

ACC, Lobo Devel­op­ment and Stu­dent Affairs Rep­re­sen­ta­tives are now meet­ing with cam­pus groups who have expressed inter­est in the project.

Media Con­tact: Karen Went­worth (505) 277‑5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu