Penn State looking at new on-campus housing through land lease and $91 million ARL building

WPSU | By Anne Danahy

Published November 7, 2024 at 4:58 PM EST

A rendering of the housing being planned for the east end of the Penn State's University Park campus. The Penn State Board of Trustees' finance committee reviewed the plans during a meeting Nov. 7, 2024.

Penn State is moving ahead with several building projects on the University Park campus, including a new Applied Research Lab building and on-campus housing that will be developed through a lease agreement with a company.

The university Board of Trustees’ finance and investment committee approved plans for the projects Thursday. They will go to the full board Friday.

For the housing development, the plans include a total of 1,500 beds on the east end of campus, near University Drive and East College Avenue. Penn State plans to lease the grounds to developer Greystar, an international real estate company with headquarters in South Carolina, which will build the housing.

According to the presentation made Thursday, details of the contract are still being negotiated, but the plans include construction for about 775 beds by fall 2027, and the rest by fall 2028. The housing will be for Penn State students who are not in their first-year.

A rendering of the housing being planned for the University Park campus through a lease agreement between Penn State and Greystar. The Penn State Board of Trustees finance committee reviewed the agreement Nov. 7, 2024. The full board will consider it Nov. 8, 2024.

The new housing comes as the university is increasing its enrollment at University Park. Board member Rick Sokolov said the housing will help accommodate more students.

“What this does is the equivalent of having a private entity invest hundreds of millions of dollars to build an asset that’s going to enable us to increase enrollment, drive income and generate substantial financial gain with zero risk," he said.

The project will generate more than $20 million for Penn State, according to the presentation.

The committee also approved construction of a new $91 million Applied Research Lab at Innovation Park. It’s part of ARL’s master plan for a campus at Innovation Park, according to the presentation.

A rendering of the building Penn State's Applied Research Lab is planning for Innovation Park on the University Park campus, Nov. 7, 2024.

Andrew Read, senior vice president for research, said ARL accounts for about a third of the university’s research expenses and is growing.

“The world’s not getting any safer, so there’s a lot of interest in the Navy technologies that they support," Read said. "So from the point of view of Penn State research growth, this is a really important move.”

The new building is scheduled to be finished in fall 2026.