A parcel of land mostly known for home runs will one day become home to as many as 1,100 upper-level Sacramento State students, bringing the number of beds on campus to 3,200.

Construction on the $150 million apartment-style community, featuring four- and two-bedroom and studio units, is expected to begin in mid-2019, with completion in 2021.

University Enterprises, Inc. (UEI), Sacramento State’s authorized commercial-services auxiliary, is acquiring the 11-acre site of the Dan McAuliffe Memorial Ballparks on the southeast side of campus from the city of Sacramento. The 10-year lease-purchase agreement price is $2,274,223.

Sac State owns the adjoining 1.5 acres, which it will lease to UEI.

UEI solicited proposals from developers for a public-private partnership. A campus work group selected EdR, one of nation’s largest owners, developers, and managers of collegiate housing, as the preferred developer. Planning, design, environmental-impact reports, and financial agreements will be completed over the next six months and then submitted to the California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees for approval in November.

EdR is responsible for building, financing, operating, and managing the new housing community. Sacramento State and UEI will support the project but provide no funding.

In addition, EdR must replicate the McAuliffe baseball complex on city-owned land at Army Depot East Park before construction begins on the housing project.

“The public-private partnership enables EdR to construct and operate on-campus, University-affiliated student housing at a fair return on its investment,” says Jim Reinhart, UEI’s executive director. “The campus benefits from the developer’s expertise, obtains needed student housing, transfers construction and operating risk to the developer, receives ground-lease rent, takes ownership of the improvements upon lease expiration, and has no financial outlay.”

Sacramento State is in the midst of a $260 million-plus building boom, with major projects under construction or completed, and other, smaller projects on the horizon:

  • Parking Structure 5 – $42 million. Parking for 1,750 vehicles. It will be one of the first in the California State University (CSU) system to earn Parksmart Gold certification. Opens March 2018. The adjacent $9 million Welcome Center breaks ground in September 2018 with expected completion a year later.
  • University Union renovation and expansion – $53 million. The 71,000 square feet of combined addition/remodeled areas will give students more room to study and socialize beginning in the Fall 2018 semester.
  • Ernest E. Tschannen Science Complex – $91 million. Opens for classes in Fall 2019 with cutting-edge laboratories, a planetarium, and a rooftop observatory. Ninety percent of Sac State students will have classes in the building.
  • Riverview Hall – $53 million. The residence hall has been home to 416 first- and second-year students since August 2017. It was built to LEED Gold specifications.
  • The WELL expansion – $22.3 million. The project is expected to break ground in October 2018 and be completed in January 2020. Funding will come from Union WELL, Inc., and Student Health and Counseling Services. – Dixie Reid