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It would take an estimated $93.5 million to complete the first phase of
development of the Horace Williams tract through 2012, according to a financial
plan presented to the Horace Williams Advisory Committee at its May 7
meeting.
The bigger news: None of the money is intended to be drawn from state or
private sources that will be needed to complete some $1 billion worth of
construction on main campus over the same period.
When the advisory committee last met in November, its charge to University
administrators and consultants was to come up with a financial plan showing how
the development of the project could be funded. That plan, the committee made
clear, should not create a competition with the main campus for construction
dollars.
The plan developed by Douglas Firstenburg of Stonebridge Associates meets that
criteria, said Nancy Suttenfield, the University's vice chancellor for finance
and administration.
Ayers Saint Gross, the same Baltimore architectural firm that designed the
master plan for the main campus, was hired to lead initial design and
development efforts for Horace Williams.
The land, which is north of main campus off Airport Road and extends about two
miles in length, has been described by Ayers Saint Gross architects as a "glass
waiting to be filled with purpose, promise and innovating thinking." Of the
tract's 979 acres, the mixed-use design concept that has been developed for it
calls for building on only 295 acres. Development would be contained within
five distinct precincts, each with its own features and functions.
Jim Wheeler, the Ayers Saint Gross project manager for Horace Williams, said
the plan relies on prudent financial strategies and employs "real-estate
know-how" to advance the University's expanding mission.
The financial plan outlined shows that sufficient revenues can be generated to
cover nearly all the expense of completing the first phase of construction over
the next seven years, largely from lease agreements and other business
partnerships entered into with private research firms that would locate in some
of the new buildings.
The remediation of a chemical waste site at Horace Williams is one expense for
which money will have to be found over the next seven years.
Another expense for which money will need to be found is the remediation of the
old municipal landfill that is on the property.
Wheeler reviewed with committee members the guiding principles on which the
initial phase of development will be based.
Perhaps the overriding principle is to begin development of several precincts
at the same time to ensure the realization of a "mixed-used academic village"
from the start, he said.
The development of buildings in the East Precinct along Airport Road will
create an immediate sense of place and presence by the University. The East
Precinct is expected to resemble McCorkle Place in both scope and style and
will serve as a sort of front gate that sets the tone for the entire
development.
By 2008, the proposed "Phase I" includes the University occupying three
buildings in the East Precinct that would be used for institutional and
research purposes. They would total 265,000 square feet in size and cost about
$49 million to build.
Phase I also includes an institutional research building of about 70,000 square
feet that would be built in the North Precinct through a public-private
partnership.
Residential units also are projected to be ready for occupancy in the Western
Precinct by 2008. University employees, including those who would be working at
Horace Williams, could occupy many of the units.
Another principle guiding the first phase is to save money by starting
development on the outer edges of the Horace Williams tract that are closest to
existing roads and water, sewer and electrical lines, Wheeler said.
Committee members said they were encouraged by what they heard in the
presentation, but some members, including Faculty Chair Sue Estroff, expressed
caution about spreading information about the project too far or too much at a
time when faculty and staff are more preoccupied with the state's current
budget crisis.
Employees are worried about losing their jobs or seeing programs they have
developed cut or eliminated, Estroff said.
They also are worried about what is going to happen to their health insurance
and whether they are going to get a pay raise.
The long-term financing of Horace Williams development and the short-term
budget crisis may be two separate issues, Estroff said, but it may be hard for
people emotionally to separate them.
Robert Shelton, executive vice chancellor and provost, said that now that so
many questions have been answered in regard to the size, location and
sequencing of construction of new buildings at Horace Williams, it is time for
deans and other academic leaders on campus to begin discussing what academic
and research programs should go in them.
Meanwhile, work continues on responding to community concerns that have been
raised in regard to both Horace Williams Airport and the impact of development
on nearby public schools, said Jonathan Howes, a special assistant to the
chancellor serving on the team that Chancellor James Moeser assembled to
spearhead the project. Others on the team are Suttenfield, Susan Ehringhaus,
vice chancellor and general counsel, and Jack Evans, the business professor who
became involved in the project while serving as the University's interim
finance director.
An updated layout plan for the airport is being developed to comply with
standards set forth by the Federal Aviation Administration, Howes said. The
airport is used by the airplanes serving Area L AHEC, the part of the state
health education system headquartered at the University's School of Medicine.
At the same time, the University is working with Chapel Hill school officials
to gauge the future impact on nearby schools as the land is developed and a
portion of it is turned into residential housing for employees and students.
During recent town-gown negotiations, Moeser told town officials that the
University will be willing to consider donating sites for new public schools on
the Horace Williams tract.
Wheeler said Ayers Saint Gross is now working with 25 different campuses across
the country on their development plans.
None of these other universities have the opportunity to develop so much open
land within such easy reach of their main campuses, and it's an opportunity
that other universities would be delighted to have, Wheeler said.
Even with the current budget crisis, Wheeler said, it is an opportunity that
should be viewed through the focus of a long-range lens.
Ehringhaus said the next steps in the process will be to begin the program
planning under the leadership of the provost and to continue the physical and
financial planning under the leadership of the advisory committee and the other
administrators who have been working on the project.
The plan uses as a starting point a blueprint drafted two years ago by JJR
Inc., a landscape design, engineering and environmental firm.
The JJR study identified 550 acres, or about 56 percent of the total tract, as
developable. The Ayers Saint Gross plan's smaller footprint calls for a
narrower, more compact street network that will leave more land in a natural
state.
The plan leaves 170 acres for the existing Horace Williams airport, and 259
acres -- or 26 percent of the total -- in open space.
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