Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | August 29, 2022 17 Your Local Cash Management Specialist Here to Help Your Local Business Flourish. Sherrie Dubois, Cash Management Specialist SDubois@ThomastonSB.com | 860.283.3651 Member FDIC ThomastonSB.com | 855.344.1874 ACH Origination, Positive Pay, Remote Deposit Capture & More meeting up with your friends," Van Der Werf said. "Those are factors a lot of people see as contributing to the quality of your experience at a school. A lot of colleges in recent years have modernized their resi- dence halls and understand this is something to invest in. Housing can be the differentiating factor for some people." Other UConn projects UConn has a slate of other projects it's considering, including the poten- tial demolition and replacement of the North, Northwest and West campus residence halls. Meantime, Hickson, Brien McMahon and Hilltop halls are candidates for renovation, Cruick- shank said. Those are all future projects with no cost estimates or timetables, she said. UConn currently has 18 residential communities at its Storrs campus ranging from pre-war, histori- cally noteworthy buildings in the East Campus to the Peter J. Werth Tower, which opened in 2016 in the Hilltop area. The last housing construction project prior to the Werth Tower at Storrs was in 1998, officials said. UConn isn't alone in dealing with aging facilities. According to construction data and service provider Gordian's 2022 "State of Facilities in Higher Educa- tion" report, 30% of the 52,000-plus North American college campus buildings it tracks are in the 10- to 25-year age group and the major systems in many of them will soon reach the end of their lives. Similarly, schools are debating what to do with the large portfolio of build- ings first constructed in the 1960s and 1970s that are often subpar in terms of craftmanship and difficult to repurpose, the report said. Those decisions will be more difficult as the U.S. higher-edu- cation system faces enrollment challenges with a projected decline in high school gradates. Total post- secondary U.S. college enrollment, including both undergraduate and graduate students, decreased by 4.1%, or about 685,000 students, this past spring, compared to a year earlier, according to a report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. "This wave of renovation needs will be cresting just as the enrollment cliff is hitting full stride, eroding access to students and the revenue necessary to address a deluge of needs," the report said, noting there was a 19% reduction in college facility capital investment in 2021, likely due to pressures from the pandemic. Housing in Hartford? There is also an active off-campus apartment market near Storrs, with thousands of units owned by private landlords and investors. And there have been several noteworthy deals in the area in the past few years, including the sale of the popular Carriage House Townhomes at 183 Huntington Lodge/20 Carriage House Drive in the Storrs section of Mans- field. The 65-unit, 129-bed complex sold in April 2021 for $11.2 million. In June, another 45-unit apartment complex at 87 Ruby Road in Will- ington sold for $5.5 million. Beyond Storrs, UConn only provides housing at its Stamford branch, which in 2017 debuted a new six-story, 116-unit residential building in the heart of the city at 900 Wash- ington Blvd. That building houses 300 students. Cruickshank also said that while she currently sees UConn's Hart- ford branch as largely a "commuter campus" she is hoping that label can change in the future. "There is definitely some interest in (student housing) in Hartford," she said. "We haven't actually started a project on it, but as far as we know, the city is interested. We do not know, at this point, what that would look like. We don't yet have a settled strategic plan for the Hartford campus." UConn's other two satellite campuses are in Waterbury and Groton. In Waterbury, UConn officials said, there is nearby housing that landlords market to UConn students and others. Most Groton campus students live in private apartments and houses. A rendering of UConn's planned 657-bed South Campus Residence Hall that will feature suite living units and a 500-seat dining hall. RENDERING | CONTRIBUTED

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