Class Test

Despite concerns over future budgets, university construction proceeds throughout Southeast

By Debra Wood

Projects continue to break ground on college campuses throughout the Southeast, but the weak economy is starting to affect owners’ budgets.

“We’re seeing the impact of state economies with less tax revenue,” says Kevin Kuntz, executive vice president of McCarthy Building Co. in Atlanta. “Every place is starting to look at their building programs, long term, which is two to three years down the road.”

McCarthy began work in December on the $115 million, 347,000-sq-ft Parker H. Petit Science Teaching Laboratory, a research and teaching laboratory to study chemistry and life sciences at a new Georgia State University science park in downtown Atlanta.

advertisement

Even so, Kuntz says that with most state budgets tight, he anticipates a negative impact on university building programs.

Meanwhile, projects continue coming out of the ground.

“University work is doing well throughout the state [of Florida], even though there is a cutback in funding and a reduction in population growth,” says Kent Long, senior vice president of business development for Balfour Beatty Construction in Plantation, Fla. Balfour Beatty is building the $53 million, 170,000-sq-ft University of Central Florida College of Medicine Learning Resource Center at Lake Nona, a planned development in Orlando. At UCF’s main campus, Balfour Beatty expects to break ground this fall on an approximately $25 million performing arts education facility with studios and performance halls.

Joe Dusek, vice president of Hardin Construction Co. in Atlanta, says the market remains strong because “colleges and universities need to accommodate the echo boomers. Existing facilities are aging, students are demanding better housing and facilities and research grants are driving newer and more advanced facilities and equipment.”

Hardin is working on a 392-unit, 1,000-bed, low-rise student housing project at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro for Ambling University Development Group of Valosta, Ga., and expects to begin construction this fall on a 200-bed, 62,816-sq-ft dormitory for Young Harris College in Young Harris, Ga.

“[Schools] plan ahead,” says Lon Neuman, Ajax Building Corp.’s operations manager for northeast Florida in Jacksonville. “(The sector) is not recession proof, but it’s a different world.”

Ajax broke ground in December on a $21 million, 100,000-sq-ft College of Education and Human Services building, with labs, offices and support space, at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. The three-story, structural-steel building is expected to complete in April, and the project aims for LEED certification.

Jim Fraser, vice president and general manager of Turner Construction Co. in Miami, also reports an active university market. Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton recently selected Turner to build its $17 million, 60,000-sq-ft College of Arts and Letters, scheduled to break ground later this year. Turner is in preconstruction on the Miami-Dade College Van Dyke Building, a $12 million, 30,000-sq-ft project.

“In 2002 to 2007, when the condo market cooked, institutions and higher education were struggling to get projects going,” Fraser adds. “Now, there’s no question pricing has increased, but there is an active market. Subcontractors and vendors are looking for work and that helps clients with education projects.”

Another method of dealing with the financial crunch is privately funded projects, either directly by developers or through university foundations, and while the concept has provided undergraduate dormitory and apartment units for some time, it is expanding to graduate-student housing and requiring a greater financial commitment from the developer, adds Warren Burke, vice president of development for Campus Apartments of Philadelphia. His firm is financing and building a $27 million graduate student-housing complex at Emory University in Atlanta.

Florida

At the University of Florida in Gainesville, Ajax is working with designers on the $18.9 million, 58,000-sq-ft Graduate Studies Building – William R. Hough Hall. The university expects construction to start later this summer.

Ajax recently completed a $72 million, 168,000-sq-ft, five-story Chemical Sciences Laboratory at Florida State University in Tallahassee. The building features a 160-seat lecture hall and flexible laboratory space.

Culpepper Construction Co. of Tallahassee is constructing the $17 million Material Research Building at Innovation Park at FSU. The two-story, 44,000-sq-ft center will house 13 laboratories for design, processing and study of advanced materials. Also at FSU, Culpepper recently finished building a $34 million psychology building and a $26 million, 50,000-sq-ft Student Success Center, a career services building. The university has $398 million in projects in design or construction.

Suffolk Construction Co. in West Palm Beach, Fla., broke ground in 2007 on the $4 million, 13,282-sq-ft Florida Atlantic University College of Business/Office Depot Center for Executive Development in Boca Raton. Office Depot donated $2 million for the center, which the state matched.

Balfour Beatty expects to start construction this spring on a $35 million, 650-unit dormitory project at FAU. And it recently completed a $23 million, 80,000-sq-ft Graduate School of Business classroom building at Florida International University in Miami.

Skanska USA Building of Fort Lauderdale is constructing a $29.6 million, 103,000-sq-ft College of Nursing and Health Sciences Lab Clinic at FIU. The school expects to open the building late in 2009.

At the University of Miami, Moss & Associates of Fort Lauderdale expects to complete this fall a $135.2 million, 10-story Biomedical Research Center; a 1,000-space parking garage; and a chiller plant. The research building includes 100,928 sq ft of lab and 64,709 sq ft of office space and will feature a 20,000-sq-ft vivarium for both large and small animals.

In Jacksonville, Elkins Constructors of Jacksonville is building the $50 million University of North Florida Student Union Building, a 148,000-sq-ft center with offices, lounges, restaurant and retail space. It’s set to finish next spring.

The Haskell Co. of Jacksonville broke ground on the $86 million Osprey Fountains residence hall at UNF last fall. The five-story, 365,000-sq-ft building will house 1,000 students when it opens in summer 2009.

On the Gulf Coast, Kraft Construction Co. of Fort Myers expects to complete construction in October on the $17.8 million, 50,000-sq-ft U.A. Whitaker School of Engineering at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers. The building features combined lecture and lab facilities.

North and South Carolina

Skanska of Durham, N.C., is working on the North Carolina State University Engineering Building III in Raleigh. The structure will house the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Department of Biomedical Engineering, in a partnership agreement with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The North Carolina Legislature provided $103.7 million for planning and construction of the 248,291-sq-ft laboratory and classroom building. It is scheduled for completion in summer 2010.

Balfour Beatty of Charlotte broke ground in March on a $68 million Physical Sciences Building at UNC at Chapel Hill. Also at UNC, Bovis/Clancy & Theys, a joint venture of Bovis Lend Lease and Clancy & Theys, both of Raleigh, is providing sitework for the Bell Tower Development, a $231 million, mixed-use development scheduled to start construction in February.

At Duke University in Durham, Romeo Guest Associates of Durham is completing a $5 million toilet room and concession stand renovation at Wallace Wade Stadium. It is part of a multiphased renovation that will be driven by fundraising. During the next $1.5 million phase, not yet let, the school will add a scoreboard at the north end zone.

Georgia

At the University of Georgia in Athens, Holder Construction of Atlanta is expanding the Tate Student Center and constructing a parking deck. The $58 million project’s parking deck should finish this summer and the building in May. And Brasfield & Gorrie in Atlanta is working on a $17 million expansion and renovation of the University Health Center at the University of Georgia, scheduled for completion in August 2009.

McCarthy’s 10-story, post-tensioned concrete Parker H. Petit Science Teaching Laboratory at the Georgia State University science park in downtown Atlanta features biosafety level three and level four laboratory space and a vivarium. Classified according to safety requirements needed to work within them, laboratories are ranked from one to four, with four being where researchers handle the most lethal pathogens.

The 201-unit Campus Apartments/Emory complex, on land leased from Emory, will contain one-, two- and three-bedroom units in two buildings; a large L-shaped structure with a center courtyard; a 30-unit building out front; and a five-level parking deck. The complex will open in August 2009. Campus Apartments will rent the units to students and maintain the property.

“The Southeast is still a top market,” says Campus Apartments’ Burke. “There is a lot of demand from state and private schools, and we are actively seeking other relationships.”

Useful Sources:
Office Depot Executive Education Center
http://www.fau.edu/communications/internal/update/archive/06Feb/second.html

Georgia State University Science Park
http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwexa/news/archive/2006/06_1005-sciencepark.htm

Bell Tower Development
http://www.fpc.unc.edu/CIP/Projects.asp?Project=32

University of North Florida
http://www.unf.edu/dept/facplan/projects.html

University of Georgia
http://www.camplan.uga.edu/ouaapps/Projects/List