University of Ottawa housing project could lead to more P3s

The University of Ottawa’s student housing project, a potential public-private partnership project to deliver more than 2,000 beds of housing, could set the stage for other needed infrastructure improvements to be delivered under a P3 model, a university official told Infralogic.

The university (uOttawa), an urban university based in Canada’s capital city, is evaluating responses to a request for qualifications that closed in May and is considering how using a progressive P3 delivery model might shape future projects, said George Zigoumis, the university’s senior director of asset management, planning and real estate.

“What we’re seeing with our P3 effort in the student housing project is the next step to partner with groups that can help us carry the tremendous financial loads of our current fiscal realities,” Zigoumis told Infralogic in an interview yesterday. “Moving forward, we have major infrastructure upgrades planned for our power systems and our power plant and some excellent opportunities to build faculty facilities.”

The housing development would increase the university’s student bed capacity by as much as 2,600 beds and include related amenities, including such spaces as rooms for programs and services for students.

The development fits into the university’s larger planning processes, including Transform 2030 and its 2015 campus master plan, according to procurement documents and Zigoumis. Going forward, the university is looking to use a more organic, “living model” that can be adapted more quickly as circumstances change, and how the housing development is being procured could help with that, he said.

The RFQ for the student housing project closed in May with a robust response, said Zigoumis, who said he couldn’t release the names of the firms that had responded to the RFQ. “We are quite pleased with the involvement” of private firms, including some from Canada, the US and abroad, he said.

The university expects to launch a request for proposals in the late summer, according to the RFQ.

uOttawa decided to open the student housing procurement to a possible P3 after officials “looked at the marketplace of ideas” including both how student housing has been done in Canada and the US, and how Canadian authorities have conducted P3 procurements. The university also has hired P1 Consulting to “provide advice and support” on how to “best meet the University’s goals and optimize the value of the land for the student housing project.”

After looking at its options, with the help its procurement team, the university decided on an approach that Zigoumis said “in many ways resembles a progressive P3 in the traditional definition,” with an expected development phase agreement, according to procurement documents.

“The university along with the selected partner will determine the best solution which could include joint venture, design-build-finance through to design-build-finance-maintain-operate, or any combination thereof,” according to the RFQ.

The university wants a successful proponent to have “the full spectrum of P3 vehicles to deliver a successful project and we plan to use the pre-development agreement to map out that detail as directed by our board,” Zigoumis said.

Keeping the options open will “allow proponents to be both creative and effective in solving and delivering a housing project that suits our needs,” he said.

A successful P3 could facilitate more P3s

If all goes as planned with the housing development, uOttawa will see if it can move forward with other projects using a similar procurement method. On the horizon is a revamp of the university’s power plant, and with “major infrastructure interventions like power systems or a power plant, they’re just, in today’s world, a tremendous capital load for any organization,” Zigoumis said.

In July last year, the university issued a request for expressions of interest (REOI) for firms to study renewing its energy distribution system as well as its power plant, mechanical and electrical systems and its buildings. More than 120 firms downloaded documents related to the REOI, according to bid information. The university received 24 responses to the REOI for the power plant project, and the responses are informing uOttawa’s procurement development strategy and design approach, Zigoumis said. The first phase of the energy program progressive P3 procurement is expected next year, he said.

A successful student housing P3 would give the university “a case to leverage future development,” using private sources, Zigoumis said.

“We plan on using this as an example of how we can unlock capital potential through a progressive P3 approach for major developments into the future,” he said.

In addition to its energy infrastructure, another set of developments on the horizon is a “complex mix” of lab space, computer labs and classrooms, stitched together with common areas that could help bring different disciplines together for collaboration—or be geared toward integrating university buildings with the rest of its neighborhood, Zigoumis said.

“We’re very keen on the community interactions as well,” he said. “We want to get away from impermeable spaces and make sure out capital projects have a mixed-use element.”