Lobo Village, UNM’s housing collaboration with American Campus Communities, has no vacancies, and main campus construction is ongoing despite questions about how much rent ACC will pay UNM.
Lobo Village cost more than $39 million to build, and it opens Aug. 17, according to Jason Wills, ACC senior vice president of development.
ACC is in the process of demolishing the 172-bed Santa Ana dorm on main campus. It will build four dorms capable of housing 1,027 students by August 2012. The project will cost an estimated $39.4 million, with ACC footing the building costs.
“It’s on a pretty aggressive timeline, and that is why you are seeing things happen so quickly,” Wills said.
The lease price is not set, and ACC will pay UNM for renting main-campus land when their dorms are completed and costs tallied Wills said.
ACC will temporarily pay UNM $485,000 in rent for the first year if dorm construction is completed within the estimated budget. If costs exceeds said budget, the grounds lease fee could be as low as $305,000, according to ACC’s building plan.
Wills said the contract needed to be flexible.
“Normally we would get a guaranteed maximum price,” he said. “We have a few smaller maximum prices, but the final cost has not been fixed.”
Construction forced the closure of main campus walkways and roads. Roma Avenue, the pedestrian walkway that runs east to west through the area, will be closed except during dorm move-in times and special occasions. Redondo Drive will partially open for move-ins and will be open throughout the academic year, but will likely have limited traffic.
ACC plans to renovate Redondo Drive as part of the campus master plan aimed toward slowing traffic near heavy pedestrian and recreation areas like Johnson Field.
Amy Coburn, Lobo Development Corporation planning and development consultant, said students can expect changes on campus in coming years.
“This is a time of change,” she said. “We’re adding a significant number of new freshmen beds on central campus which are really important to the kind of long-term success of students — to give them a strong connection to the academic experience.”
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Lobo Village and the construction on the Santa Ana site are part of a larger campus-wide, multi-phase program designed to increase the number of students living on campus. UNM has 2,400 beds, but hopes to raise that number to 4,400 when the project is finished.
