Apartment-style student living units on West Campus are on track to be finished for the Fall 2015 semester.
“Everything that I’ve heard and seen is that they’re right on track for that completion,” said Timothy Broderick, president of the Residence Hall Association and poultry science senior. “Transportation is working on the parking lot and they’re going to be done at a similar time.”
Broderick said the planned 1,200 new beds are just the start of plans to make West Campus more accommodating for students.
The Department of Residence Life plans to have a mock apartment-style room ready for viewing sometime this spring semester for students interested in living at the White Creek Apartments.
Broderick said the apartments should be similar to the University Apartments located on the north side of campus, only with some larger models that allow more students to a single suite.
Located on the corner of University Drive and Discovery Drive, White Creek Apartments is the result of a public-private partnership between Texas A&M and Balfour Beatty Solutions and Construction.
Broderick said the Board of Regents also approved the construction of a common area, a building with food options, study spaces and recreational activities for West Campus students.
“Phase 1, which is being built right now, is the apartments, and then part two of that is going to be a commons building with food options, study spaces, some study rooms and music rooms,” Broderick said. “And that’s gonna go up kind of across the boulevard from the apartments.”
Carol Binzer, director of administrative and support services in the Department of Residence Life, said the partnership will involve the private group incurring the cost of $112 million to build the complex, but also receiving the revenues generated.
“[Texas A&M] manages it, and we have some agreements to help them make their expected revenues — about occupancy, etc. It’s like having a separate housing system,” Binzer said. “They’ll pay the expenses for running the place.”
Rydl said the West Campus commons project is targeted to be completed January 2017 and is funded by Texas A&M instead of a public-private partnership.
Rydl said the partnership won’t affect the way students pay to live on campus.
“We’re managing the whole thing so students won’t know any different,” Rydl said. “They’ll pay just like they would if they lived in any of our other housing stock.”
The apartments, Rydl said, will have the same ground floor features — a game room, an open access lab, dining and study space — as The Commons and Hullabaloo.
West Campus construction’s Phase 2 calls for the construction of West Campus residence halls — a step that is frozen, however, until more campus dining facilities are built in the vicinity.
Broderick said the White Creek Apartments will be followed by the construction of a common area to be located nearby.
“The goal is to also put some dorms out on West campus after they get the commons built, because with the apartments, you know, you cook your own food and that kind of stuff, but the dorms depend more on having some campus food options,” Broderick said.
Binzer said the White Creek Apartments are the result of a partnership with a private group, which builds the project and incurs the costs, but also receives the revenues generated.