After years of University of Mississippi students facing housing shortages, such as not enough dormitory space on campus to accommodate all enrolled freshmen, the university has entered a partnership with housing development Greystar to construct new student housing complexes on the Oxford campus.
Two of these facilities are already in the works, offering approximately additional 2,700 beds for students. The rooms are expected to be available for move-in by 2027.
The new housing will be built on the site previously occupied by Kincannon Hall as well as a site on West Row across from the UM School of Law. The Kincannon site will contain approximately 1,200 beds, and the West Row site will hold 1,500 beds. Construction is underway for a parking garage adjacent to the Kincannon site. The West Row site will also hold a parking garage as well as a dining facility, according to an announcement from the university.
A university request for proposals (RFP), obtained by The Daily Mississippian, lists the South Parking Lot on Athletics Lane and a site next to the South Campus Recreation Center as two additional locations where construction for student housing projects are planned.
“While the RFP included several proposed sites, the university is currently focused on the West Row and Kincannon plans, which will address the university’s most immediate need of housing students on campus,” UM Director of News and Media Relations Jacob Batte said.
Through this partnership with Greystar, the university will be able to share the financial burden of developing new housing, as well as dining and parking facilities.
“Greystar and the university will share responsibility for various aspects of the project, including design and maintenance,” Batte said. “The university keeps the land, and the facilities revert back to the university at the end of the lease.”
This agreement is made possible by state legislation that allows the university to enter into contracts with private developers to construct new buildings on campus, according to Mississippi Rep. Clay Deweese.
“In order for the university to contract out with a third party, there had to be legislation to allow them to do that,” Deweese said. “We were able to pass the public-private partnership, or P3 bill, into law this past legislative session. We’re excited to be able to do this for the university as we address our rapid growth in housing needs on campus as well as throughout the community.”
Deweese said that the university will save money on constructing housing through this partnership with Greystar, allowing them to redistribute funds elsewhere.
“The major benefit is it allows the university to use their money on things that the university is in the business of doing — and that’s educating the leaders of the future and tomorrow,” Deweese said. “That’s where their resources need to go. Housing is a component, but being able to remove that so they’re able to allocate their resources towards the education component of the university is the greatest thing that comes with this for sure.”
According to Batte, the project is still in the design phase, so it is too early to identify specific costs.
Greystar has engaged in similar partnerships with other universities across the country. The company completed construction on the College View Apartments at Mississippi State University in 2019.
College View is a $67 million facility holding 656 student beds, a 7,000-square-foot addition to the MSU Child Development and Family Studies Center and 46,000 square feet of retail space. According to MSU, partnering with Greystar allowed the school to build the complex without issuing bonds or accruing additional debt.
The Daily Mississippian reached out to the university for clarification on why new legislation was necessary for UM to partner with Greystar when MSU was able to do the same years prior.
“While we cannot speak to other projects. Legislation was needed to move forward with a long-term lease for our project, and we followed that process,” Batte said.
Schools outside of Mississippi have been able to expand student housing with the help of partnerships, as well. The University of South Carolina constructed student housing facilities through a partnership with Greystar. In 2023, construction was completed on Campus Village, a housing development comprising four new buildings collectively holding 1,808 beds, which marked the largest project in the history of the university. The University of Kentucky has constructed multiple student housing facilities through an agreement with Greystar, resulting in a combined total of over 7,000 beds across 10 complexes.
Deweese anticipates similar success for UM.
“We’re obviously very supportive of this,” Deweese said. “We’re excited to see where the university goes. We know we’re growing, and we need to do what we can to accommodate that growth, continue on that trajectory and look forward to what the future holds.”
