FAMU trustees to consider construction plan for 2,000 new beds on campus

Florida A&M University’s initial plan to add 1,000 new beds onto campus has doubled to 2,000 new beds being proposed for student housing.

FAMU's Board of Trustees is being asked by the Selection Committee to approve the architect and engineer service contracts for the student housing construction — which includes the estimated costs for the projects — during a special meeting Wednesday at noon via Zoom.

In a Budget, Finance and Facilities report ahead of the meeting, the proposal lays out three projects for student housing, which are a 500-bed residence hall, a 700-bed residence hall and an 800-bed mixed-use apartment complex.

The committee is also recommending that the board approves a budget authority of up to $11 million to go toward the projects, and that President Larry Robinson provides authorization to execute the necessary contracts and agreements.

The proposal comes after a proposed outline for 1,000 new beds was discussed in detail by the board at an October 2022 meeting with plans to demolish Gibbs Hall — which has been closed since 2019 due to maintenance issues — along with Palmetto South and Phase 3 Apartments.

More: FAMU student housing construction plan could add 1,000 new beds on campus by 2024

While the three buildings are still on the list of residence halls that will be torn down to make room for new student housing on campus, the demolition of sites like Paddyfote and Old Palmetto North have already taken place, contributing to the 2,000-bed project that is being proposed.

The 500-bed residence hall would be constructed at the Gibbs Hall and Paddyfote site of FAMU’s campus, featuring a mixed-use area on the first floor, and the building has an estimated project cost of $59.6 million. JRA Architects or David M. Schwarz Architects as well as Culpepper Construction would be on board to construct the building.

The Paddyfote Complex that used to be at FAMU was demolished in 2021.

Recent FAMU demolitions: Truth Hall, FAMU’s last standing residence hall named after a woman, comes tumbling down

The 700-bed Residence Hall — which is expected to be on the Osceola Gravel site of the university’s campus and is slated to include ground floor amenity space — has an estimated cost of $80 million, and Finfrock Design, LLC would work on both the architect and construction management of the project. The company constructed the relatively new FAMU Towers on the university's campus, which would be nearby.

In addition to the two residence halls, the 800-bed mixed-use apartment complex would be located on the site of Old Palmetto North and would amount to an estimated cost of $98.6 million.

The removal of the Palmetto North Apartments complex was completed in March.

Similar to the 500-bed residence hall, the apartment complex project would be under the construction management of Culpepper Construction. CHASM Architecture, LLC would take on the architect role.

Recent efforts of the university to provide students with more on-campus beds have been the property purchases of Twelve-Twenty, Paces and Light House at Brooklyn Yard in October, which will add 118 beds to FAMU in fall 2023, located on Eugenia Street, Conklin Street and Rattler View Court.

Citivue Apartments at Railroad Square, was also recently acquired by the university, and it will add 116 more beds to FAMU.

Related news: FAMU footprint expands again amid student housing crunch with acquisition of apartments

More: ‘One important piece of the puzzle’: FAMU acquires apartments to add 118 beds for students

With housing chaos that took place ahead of fall 2022 — where many students were left scrambling for off-campus housing due to the shortage on campus — the additional beds would create more space for the increasing number of students that the university expects to be enrolled on its campus in the next few years.

FAMU’s fall 2022 enrollment of 9,027 students was a slight increase compared to its fall 2021 enrollment of 9,005 and fall 2020 enrollment of 9,000.

But there has also been a 32% increase of 707 first-time-in-college students in fall 2022 who were required to live on campus, and the university's projected fall semester enrollment for 2025 is 9,980 students. Demands to live on-campus have also come from FAMU graduate students who are interested in apartment-style housing, according to a 2022 survey that was conducted by Novogradac and Company LLP.

FAMU housing demands: With hundreds on the waitlist, FAMU responds to freshman housing crunch with financial aid

Although the initial 1,000 new beds project had a proposed timeline of 2024, the 2,000 new beds proposal report does not include a timeline.

In addition, while the U.S. Department of Education’s HBCU Capital Financing Program — which gave FAMU and 44 other HBCUs finance debt discharges in 2021 — was being considered for funding when the project was at the 1,000 new beds stage, it is possible that it will continue to be considered for this current proposal.

As the board will discuss the proposal during their meeting Wednesday, here is the Zoom information that the public can use to tune in:

Meeting ID: 994 7080 7799

Passcode: 896469

Link: https://famu.zoom.us/j/99470807799?pwd=bmtrSjVPdmdNUUhoN0FWU0FDZnlYQT09

Contact Tarah Jean at tjean@tallahassee.com or follow her on twitter @tarahjean_.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FAMU trustees to consider housing plan for 2,000 new beds on campus