Posted on: Friday, October 22, 2004
Regents get look at dorm plans
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
A plan to privately build 800 or more University of Hawai'i dorm spaces in new or renovated buildings replacing Frear, Johnson and Gateway halls, is moving forward at UH, and may also include additional beds in a completely new housing development in the middle of the Manoa campus.
The university could ask for proposals from private developers as early as January, according to Jan Yokota, UH director of capital improvements who gave the Board of Regents their first look at details of the dorm plans yesterday during committee meetings at UH-Hilo on the Big Island.
Under the best of circumstances, that would put a new dorm in the ground where the shuttered Frear Hall is by fall 2007.
The hope is to build with a public/private partnership, said Yokota. Already 15-20 private developers have expressed interest.
"We'd either renovate or reconstruct," she said of the shut-down Frear and aged Johnson and Gateway residence halls. "It depends on what's needed."
A Phase I project of that size would increase the number of overall dorm spaces in that area by 200 to 400, said Yokota. Frear had 144 beds, Gateway has 230 and Johnson 191.
But the simultaneous development of a new building in the midst of Manoa could add even more beds, she said.
"What the Manoa campus would like to include is a new housing project on a location not yet defined," said Yokota. "One of the sites set aside is near the Campus Center."
UH-Manoa has around 3,000 dorm spaces, far less than the demand. During the summer alone, waiting lists began at around the 1,400 mark, but dropped substantially when the university worked with hotels and the community to find private rental spaces for students.
More than 20,000 students are registered at Manoa this fall, and demand is expected to increase, especially because the dorm spaces also are open to nearby community college students.
Yokota will present a finalized plan for approval at the regents' November meeting. If authorized then, requests for qualifications could go out in December to developers. Then requests for proposals could be issued early in the new year, she said.
"We'd be asking the developers to use private monies," said Yokota. "So there would be no obligation for the state or the university.
"But if it becomes a situation where they need to rely on university funding, we'll take a look at that.
"The board would like to be somewhat cautious. It is a new way to proceed for the university, and they want to test out this concept with enough units to make it worthwhile for a developer, but not the entire inventory of beds because it is a new concept," said Yokota.
There still could be hurdles along the way, Yokota indicated.
"We'll use the first phase to determine if this is doable," she said. "The developer will finalize the architectural program, and a budget. Then, if we end up with a marketable and financially feasible project, we'll proceed with an agreement (to build.)"
Management of such a project is a whole different question, said Yokota. New buildings could be privately managed, or kept under UH management. Either way, student costs would rise.
"That's logical," she said. "It would go up because it would be new construction."
At yesterday's committee meetings, regents also heard about progress on potential public/private partnerships to build a new cancer research center next to the new John A. Burns School of Medicine in Kaka'ako and Phase I of a new UH-West O'ahu in Kapolei.
"If we proceed," said Yokota, "we're looking at a schedule for approval of a developer in March of next year for both."
Both proposals to seek interested developers come back to the regents for final approval in November.
The only snag is the rising price tag for a new cancer research center.
With a clinic in addition to research space, it could cost as much as $200 million, said Yokota, or twice as much as previously estimated.
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.
