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Choate Construction Co. of Atlanta completed excavation in May on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s $243-million, 343,000-sq-ft Biomedical Research Imaging Building.
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte awarded Turner a $61.5-million contract to provide preconstruction and construction services for a 200,000-sq-ft Energy Production Infrastructure Center on campus. Completion is scheduled for November 2011.
Turner received a $63-million contract in January to provide construction services on the 220,000-sq-ft G. Wayne Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons for the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
Student Housing Contractors report greater interest in housing facilities than classroom buildings.
“There are not enough beds,” BE&K’s Pierle says. “And you’re seeing aged residential facilities at several of the campuses.”
Housing complexes present opportunities for private developers to partner with universities to provide modern residences for students, and Pierle expects to see more public-private partnerships to allow universities to meet their growing needs.
“That is one area when we will see great change and great movement,” he says. Pierle adds that his company is in discussion about such projects in the Southeast but does not have any at the moment.
Balfour Beatty is working on the new $66-million, 1,200-bed Innovation Village apartment complex at Florida Atlantic University’s Boca Raton campus. The project broke ground in January.
It includes a 30,000-seat, open-air stadium and shopping and dining venues. The complex will be ready for students in August 2011. Financial partners include Balfour Beatty Capital Group of Newtown Square, Pa.; Capstone Development of Birmingham, Ala.; and Crocker Partners of Atlanta.
“Universities find themselves in competition for students,” says Clint Glass, senior vice president of Balfour Beatty in Plantation, Fla. “Key things are recruitment and retention. And students are looking for convenient, safe and current accommodations.”
Glass says he views public-private partnerships as a way to overcome a difficult construction market.
“All of us are looking for ways to help projects get started,” Baker says. “The need to accommodate all the student enrollment is not going to go away.”
Useful sources:
• University of South Carolina Darla Moore School of Business
http://mooreschool.sc.edu/about/newbuildingplans.aspx
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Biomedical Research Building
http://www.fpc.unc.edu/Projects/CompleteProjectListing.aspx
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Dental Sciences Building
http://www.fpc.unc.edu/Projects/CompleteProjectListing.aspx
• FAU Innovation Village
http://www.fau.edu/innovationvillage/
• Duke Medical Pavilion
http://www.dukemedicine.org/construction
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