By Jondi Gumz
Facing a dire shortage of affordable places for students to live, Cabrillo College has partnered with UC Santa Cruz to pursue construction of a four-story housing complex with 624 beds and a child care center estimated to cost $160 million next to the softball fields and Highway 1 in Aptos.
Planned Location © 2022 Jones Lang LaSalle IP, Inc. All rights reserved.
On Jan. 17, Cabrillo trustees voted 5-0 to approve a 13-page conceptual draft prepared by Jones, Lang, LaSalle Inc., and apply for state funding for construction by the Jan. 26 deadline. Trustees Rachael Spencer and Steve Trujillo were absent.
The concept is for 271 units in three wings, pinwheel style with courtyards on 200,511 square feet:
- Family wing — 60 units with one bed per unit.
- Apartment wing — 56 units with two beds per unit and 40 units with 4 beds per unit.
- Traditional dormitory wing — 31 units with four beds per unit and 84 units with two beds per unit.
The daycare space would be 5,788 square feet in the family wing. Other wings would offer other amenities, not yet detailed.
Access would be on Cabrillo College Drive.
No new parking is proposed. Cabrillo expects students to use the existing parking lot located north of the family wing.
The construction cost estimate is $381-$384 per gross square foot.
State Community College leaders will review applications in the summer.
Proposal Render © 2022 Jones Lang LaSalle IP, Inc. All rights reserved.
Construction of the proposed 261,905 square feet of buildings is estimated at $108.1 million with $51.5 million in soft costs such as contingencies.
Rental revenue is estimated at $5.2 million, with increases of 3% each year.
Construction is estimated to take 24 months.
In October 2021 Cabrillo applied for a 300-bed project estimated to cost $60 million, just for Cabrillo students.
The college received $240,000 for planning costs, which resulted in this new concept.
UCSC is rebuilding its Kresge College student housing to boost the number of beds from 365 to 970 and adding classrooms, a computer lab and lecture halls. This is estimated to cost $250 million.
In the summer of 2022, Cabrillo approached UCSC, in hopes of garnering more state funding with the larger project.
Bradley Olin, Cabrillo’s assistant superintendent/vice president of finance & administrative services, cautioned on the conceptual figures in the JLL presentation, indicating a decision on an exact funding request has not been made.
Inflation, for example, is assumed to be 7% a year.