A plan to build housing as a way to attract faculty and staff to the university was part of FGCU's Board of Trustees meeting this week.
The project is just in the informational stages but could lead to a number of units being built to the south of Gulf Coast Town Center, about two miles from the FGCU campus.
Three options were presented at the board meeting with the third being recommended. The project will come back before the board at a later date for additional discussions and/or action and university officials said no timeline for the project has been developed.
The option recommended would create a new Direct Support Organization (DSO) and develop one phase of about 50 units with what was described as a simpler, less expensive attached product such as a townhome.
This option would involve the issuance of an invitation to negotiate to builders to construct a townhome-type unit at 10-14 units per acre on property FGCU owns west of the West Lake Village university housing. That property sits directly behind Gulf Coast Town Center's southern boundary.
After consideration and approval of financial aspects the board would be asked to create the DSO and transfer the land.
It would be the DSO that would contract with a builder and manage rental units, the plan outlined.
Other options included:
- The university developing the project itself. This option would use market-rate rentals to create “profit” used to reduce the rates of the FGCU housing. Rising costs and a risk to the university's non-profit status were downsides to this option.
- Developing a “true” income-qualified housing project for those making 120% or less of area median income and offer to FGCU faculty/staff as well as others that qualify. This option cited income limits and government regulations as barriers.
According to information provided by FGCU, discussion on the project began in 2020 and, at that time, also involved other organizations including Lee Health.
Initially project plans at that time called for a 424-unit project with a first phase of 264 units. The project costs varied from, $562 to $67 million with HUD loans looked at. The final thought on the project's particulars at that time, the university information showed, was that not enough equity could be secured to make the project feasible.
Next, in 2022 and 2023, the project segued to a plan to lease land to private developer with proceeds used for staff/faculty housing. Other aspects and barriers to the plan at that time included:
• Falcone/Kaufmann building group was selected to build 432-unit project, based on their experience with similar projects and proposed plan
• Project cost $117 million
• 44 units would be discounted by 30% of market + $500,000/yr.
• State-required maximum 40-year lease is problematic for financing
• Currently on pause
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