Butler Taps Texas Company For Housing Project
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowButler University is working with a Texas company to develop new student housing. The agreement calls on American Campus Communities to build and maintain the facility, with Butler sharing in the revenue.
April 18, 2014
News Release
Indianapolis, Ind. — Butler University has partnered with Austin, Texas-based American Campus Communities to develop new student housing facilities on Butler's campus. The initial phase of development will include a state-of-the-art facility with approximately 500 beds, and is tentatively scheduled to open in fall 2016.
Under the initial agreement, American Campus will build and maintain the facility, while Butler and American Campus will share in the revenue. The appropriate partnership model is currently being negotiated and site studies are underway to determine the facility's optimal location on campus.
Butler and American Campus have also selected Chicago-based Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB) as lead architect, and Indianapolis-based Shiel Sexton as lead contractor, and Cripe Architects Engineers for site design.
This effort represents the first phase of a comprehensive student housing master plan that will address the University's overall housing inventory. The scope of the master planning process encompasses the renovation or redevelopment of approximately 1,200-1,500 student beds and related student amenity space.
“Developing superior campus amenities is crucial to our educational mission and to Butler's 2020 Vision,” Butler President James M. Danko said. “American Campus Communities brings an enormous amount of experience and vision to our partnership, and we are excited to work with them to bring world-class housing options to Butler.”
By establishing a long-term partnership with American Campus, Butler will be able to dramatically upgrade its housing options, while maintaining the financial flexibility needed to invest in future academic facilities.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Butler University,” said Jamie Wilhelm, Executive Vice President of public private partnerships at American Campus. “We look forward to a collaborative process and to providing a modern living-learning community to the next generation of Butler students.”
American Campus Communities––the nation's largest developer, owner, and manager of high-quality student housing communities has completed similar projects at more than 40 universities, including Princeton, the University of Southern California, Texas A&M, and Arizona State.
Examples of their work can be seen at http://www.americancampus.com.
Since 1996, American Campus has developed more than $4.3 billion in properties and acquired more than $4.8 billion in student housing assets. The company has been awarded the development of more than 70 on-campus projects, in addition to 26 projects developed off campus.
About Butler University
Butler is a nationally recognized comprehensive university encompassing six colleges: Arts, Business, Communication, Education, Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Together, these colleges offer more than 60 undergraduate areas of study, eight pre-professional programs, and 19 graduate programs. Around 4,700 students are enrolled at Butler, representing 45 states and 49 countries. Ninety-five percent of Butler students will have participated in some form of internship, student teaching, clinical rotation, research, or service learning by the time they graduate. This community-centered immersion is coupled with classroom learning that nurtures critical thinking, effective communication, cooperative teamwork, and ethical decision making to prepare students for both professional success and to have lasting impact in their communities. Butler's overall placement rate for the class of 2012 was 94 percent, including 19 percent who went on to graduate or professional school.
Source: Butler University