UMass planning major public-private campus housing overhaul

The privately built Fieldstone complex on Massachusetts Avenue, across from the Whitmore Administration Building, opened last fall with one-bedroom units going for more than $2,000 a month. CONTRIBUTED
Published: 01-30-2025 7:28 PM |
AMHERST — UMass Chancellor Javier Reyes is seeking a new public-private partnership that could bring to the University of Massachusetts campus affordable, mixed-use housing for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as possible options for non-students — an initiative that could reduce the pressure on the area’s housing stock.
In partnership with the University of Massachusetts Building Authority, the flagship campus on Wednesday put out a request for proposals that would explore working with one or more developers to create a comprehensive, long-range plan to modernize existing housing on the UMass campus, where about 80% of residence halls opened before 1971, and to maintain affordability into the future.
UMass officials are calling this exploration of public-private partnership opportunities a holistic approach to housing modernization that is also part of a strategic planning process for the next 10 years.
“In issuing this RFP, we’re hoping to elicit creative and innovative proposals for addressing our long-term housing and deferred maintenance needs,” Reyes said in a statement. “By adding to and modernizing our housing stock, and enhancing campus amenities through a public-private partnership, we could lessen some of the pressure on the regional housing market, while freeing up resources to devote to our core mission of boundary-breaking research and transformative scholarship for the common good.”
The Amherst campus had its first foray into a public-private partnership with the development of Fieldstone, which opened in the fall of 2023 in former parking lots on Massachusetts Avenue. Located across from the Whitmore Administration building, the $200 million project developed by Axium Infrastructure of New York City and Balfour Beatty Campus Solutions of Philadelphia has 623 beds for undergraduate students and a separate area with 200 beds for graduate students.
The procurement process is being managed by Newmark, a commercial real estate advisory firm, with the hope of identifying a developer to devise responsible and creative mixed-use plans to strategically renovate or expand the Amherst campus’s existing housing stock, to meet diverse affordability needs; integrate sustainable design; enhance infrastructure supporting the academic and campus life experience for students, faculty and staff; and to ease regional pressures for all types of housing.
As part of this process, UMass is also opening the door for a developer to explore mixed-use development concepts with retail and nontraditional undergraduate, graduate and non-student housing. Many of the current residence halls are not efficient or environmentally sustainable, and require significant investment to be modernized consistent with current standards for new campus housing.
Responses to the request for proposals are expected to address recommendations from a 2014 U3 Advisors report, put together for both UMass and the town of Amherst, that sought to create a stable balance in housing and economic growth. Public-private partnerships, or P3s, alleviates the need for the university to borrow money for construction and limits the university’s debt burden.
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Potential housing initiatives on university land, in either Amherst or Hadley, are expected to be aligned with the Healey-Driscoll administration’s statewide housing priorities.
Ed Augustus, secretary of Housing and Livable Communities for the state, said in a statement that the Healey-Driscoll administration is commending UMass for a thoughtful approach to housing development that meets the needs of the university community and Amherst residents.
“The initiative announced today is in line with the administration’s priority to leverage state-owned land, build new housing, and drive down costs,” Augustus said. “We are excited by the possibility of new homes in Amherst for locals, staff, students and faculty alike.”
This procurement is based on a model previously used successfully by the building authority on UMass campuses, and by higher educational institutions across the country.
While the Amherst campus is the focus, there may also be partnership options on the Mount Ida campus of UMass Amherst in Newton.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.