Purdue student housing project achieves commercial, financial close

Purdue University’s new 1300-bed student housing project passed its final major milestone Friday (Oct. 26) before construction begins next month.

As previously announced, the university selected Plenary Properties Purdue LLC as the preferred proposer of the project in July of this year. The team is composed of Plenary Group USA, Corvias, Gilbane Building Co., MSKTD & Associates, Mackey Mitchell Architects, Schneider Corp., MKSK and Applied Engineering. The organizations reached commercial and financial close Friday on the housing project that includes the two residence halls currently known as Third Street North and Meredith South.

Purdue’s Physical Facilities team has managed the innovative public-private partnership procurement method, launching the process in March, shortlisting two of the six initial proposers for negotiation of terms in May and reaching final agreement with the Plenary-led team earlier this month. To facilitate the process, Purdue provided updates and received Board of Trustees approval at two critical junctures, first in August when the board approved initial development terms offered by the Plenary team, and later in October when it approved the final project plans and specifications. Within the past two weeks, the project has also received approval of the State Budget Agency and the governor, in keeping with the university’s land-grant mission and public process.

“Due to the P3 delivery method being used for this project, we’ve been able to go from the issuance of the RFP to commercial and financial close in less than eight months,” said Jay Wasson, chief operations officer for Physical Facilities. “It’s been a highly collaborative process that will result in significant avoided costs for the university since this process allows for private-sector innovation in both project design and execution. We’re excited to see the project move into the construction phase and to start to see the buildings going up.”

“The Plenary team is pleased to be partnering with Purdue University to meet the urgent need for undergraduate student housing on campus,” said Brian Budden, President & CEO of Plenary. “Reaching financial close was an important last step before breaking ground on this vital project.”

 Construction will begin in late November, with the two residence halls ready for student occupancy in time for the 2020-2021 academic year.

 The news release can also be found on Purdue University’s website here.