Ground Lease & Project Structure
The University will retain fee title ownership of both the Orchard Park and West Village Transfer Student Housing sites and will provide a long-term ground lease agreement for each site for the purposes of financing, developing, and operating each Project.
The University will evaluate the effect of each Project’s financing and business terms on the University’s credit rating and the campus’ debt capacity within the University. The University is currently considering a number of potential Project/financial structures to meet its goals and anticipates providing greater clarity for Project structuring with the Stage 2 RFP.
Such opportunities may include:
- Tax-exempt Project revenue bonds, with the selected Developer or Developers earning a fee to develop and operate the Project under contract with a qualified non-profit entity that will be selected by the University, in which the entity would enter into a ground lease of the Project site(s) and own the completed Project(s) (and variations thereon); or
- Private equity capital with commercial financing, with the selected Developer or Developers entering into the ground lease(s) of the Project site(s) and owning and operating the completed Project(s) (and variations thereon).
The business terms of the ground lease(s) will be subject to the approval of the Board of Regents.