Central Washington University Board of Trustees November 3, 2017 1.) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY – New Residence Hall
Central Washington University has experienced unprecedented enrollment growth in recent years, particularly in first-year classes. Because first-year students are required to live on campus, demand for university housing has exceeded the capacity of CWU residential facilities. CWU opened the fall of 2017 to overflow capacity in university housing. Reaching maximum capacity leaves the university with little ability to respond to emergency maintenance problems in housing, lessens the capacity to host conferences and visiting students, and greatly reduces the ability of the university to conduct regular maintenance on housing facilities. At the recent July 2017 Board meeting, the CWU Board of Trustees directed staff to prepare to site, design, and construct a 400-bed residence hall to open in Ellensburg by fall 2019. CWU’s new residence hall, “New Hall,” will accommodate increased enrollment and provide modern housing and dining space that students desire within the 120,000 gross-square-foot project. The approach of the housing unit layout and building footprint is to encourage development of a small-scale residential community with communal bathrooms, study rooms, and lounges on each floor to help promote social interaction and a sense of community. New Hall will be the first CWU project to use the progressive design-build (PDB) delivery method. PDB allows the design team and construction team to work concurrently from the beginning of the project. This enables the entire team to focus on the main goal of providing the highest quality housing to students, and completing the project within budget and in the timeliest fashion. PDB mitigates risks through collaborative value engineering, constructability processes, mitigated risks during design, mitigated risks during construction, scheduling efficiencies, and reduced life-cycle costs stemming from earlier team collaboration. The process transfers bid-day risks to the forefront of the selection period, allowing project managers to work directly with the PDB construction team. This creates more opportunity for innovative and collaborative ideas and reduces schedule delays. By partnering with and leveraging the expertise and credibility of the Washington State Dept. of Enterprise Services (DES), CWU received unanimous approval of the state Capital Projects Advisory Review Board (CPARB), the authorization of which is required in order to use this delivery method. CFO Joel Klucking is leading the development of financing analysis for the New Hall project. It will be funded by bonding against CWU’s System, which includes dining, residence facilities, the Wildcat Shop, and other revenue sources. The project is anticipated to cost approximately $45 million; bond payments are projected to be $2.8 million annually for 30 years. Funding assumes annual 5-percent increases in residence hall fees. The project team has met and consulted with CWU’s bond consultant, Public Financial Management, to determine bonding capacity for New Hall and how this commitment will impact bonding capacity for future projects.
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