West Village Apartments

Stage 2 RFP West Village Transfer Student Housing Project Summary

Project Summary – West Village Transfer Student Housing

 

PROJECT GOALS

Davis is seeking a Developer to design, construct, own and operate a new student housing project to be constructed at UC Davis West Village (“West Village”) to serve transfer students and other upper division students. Goals for the West Village Transfer Student Housing Project are to maximize affordability, to build community, and to provide for exceptional facility design and operations. The Project should be available for occupancy by August 2020.

Affordability

  • The selected Developer will be required to provide a target of 1,875 beds of apartment-style housing at a starting rent not to exceed $750 per bed (single occupancy-1 bed per bedroom) and $600 per bed (double occupancy-2 beds per bedroom) in 2017 dollars. Annual rent escalations will be the lesser of: (i) CPI; or (ii) 2%. These figures represent the target rents for the West Village Transfer Student Housing Project. Developers should be able to demonstrate in their pro formas the trade-off analysis for certain additional amenities versus these rent goals (e.g. in unit laundry vs. laundry rooms, furnished units vs. unfurnished units).

  • The target of 1,875 beds is not a maximum and additional beds may be considered within the Project. Proposals that exceed the 1,875 bed target will be viewed positively as long as goals for affordability and quality of place are balanced with the higher density. The exact number of beds, apartment unit mix, number, height and massing of buildings, common amenities, parking provisions and all other design matters will be determined by a collaborative site planning design process starting in this Stage 2 of the RFP process and continuing with the selected Developer during the period of exclusive negotiations. These units should be designed to maximize affordability while balancing overall quality of place and density.

Up to 30% of the bedrooms may have double occupancy. This means that approximately 1,450 bedrooms may be constructed to reach the total desired target of 1,875 beds.

Building Community

  • The selected Developer will be asked to develop a long-term property management plan to provide best-in-class property management.
  • The ground lease will provide for an annual evaluation of property management services by UC Davis Student Housing and Dining Services and UC Davis Real Estate Services using agreed-upon performance metrics.
  • UC Davis Student Housing and Dining Services will master lease up to 1,200 beds from the selected Developer at the starting rents noted above for five years with five one-year options to extend with a continuing right of first offer to lease additional beds from the selected Developer. In other words, each year, the selected Developer will give UC Davis Student Housing and Dining Services the right to lease additional beds after lease renewals but before the Developer offers beds to the general student population. UC Davis Student Housing and Dining Services will enter into Student Housing Agreements with the individual transfer students for such beds it master leases from the selected Developer.
  • UC Davis Student Housing and Dining Services will provide residential programming, including resident assistants and other program managers, to the transfer students geared to provide them with the necessary resources to succeed at UC Davis.

Facility Design and Operations

  • West Village is designed to be a zero net energy community. The Project should be designed to be all electric and zero net energy from the grid on an annual basis. The selected Developer should develop a plan that encourages energy conservation by its residents.
  • The selected Developer will be required to develop a site plan that maximizes density on the site while maintaining financial feasibility.
  • The Project should include a community building that features individual and group study spaces and a community room that can be used for larger gatherings. Study spaces should also be integrated into the Project at the building scale and incorporated in the outdoor living space.
  • The Project should include the design, construction, and maintenance of an approximately three-acre Central Green, to be designed collaboratively by the selected Developer and the University and to be used by the residents of the Project and the larger West Village neighborhood. The Central Green should be natural turf and may include lights.
  • The Project does not impose a building height restriction. Exceeding the target of 1,875 beds is encouraged, if financially feasible.
  • The Project should incorporate low-impact design/green infrastructure features to treat storm water on site consistent with UC Davis storm water specifications. The Central Green may also function as a storm water treatment basin.
  • The Project should include the design, construction, and maintenance of peripheral open space, including the open space buffer to the north, an agricultural buffer to the west, and a roadway buffer to the south. All three of these elements will most likely function as storm water treatment and green infrastructure.
  • The Developer should present the most cost effective laundry strategy – whether in unit or common laundry facilities.
  • The Project should be designed as a bicycle-oriented and transit-oriented development.
    • Please note the location of Unitrans bus stops on the site diagram and design the site to maximize access to the existing transit stops;
    • The Project should create a major bicycle corridor along the northern open space buffer and connect to the bicycle and pedestrian bridge over Highway 113;
    • The Project should avoid and minimize bicycle and vehicular conflicts throughout the Project site;
    • Proposers should consider the feasibility of three grade-separated bicycle tunnels located on the attached Site Diagram;
    • The Project should incorporate secure and convenient bicycle parking (at least 1 bike parking spot per bed); and
    • The Project should consider building designs that work well with bicycles and incorporate design features like cargo elevators and bicycle work stations to reinforce the bicycle as the primary mode of travel.
  • On-site parking for the Project should be minimized to the extent possible and aggregated into one area. Alternative parking and transportation solutions should be evaluated. The University will work collaboratively with the selected Developer to minimize on-site parking by providing off-site parking on a site adjacent to the Project, allowing for more of the Project site to be used for housing.
  • The Project should include solar panel arrays atop the student housing parking area to deliver renewable energy on site. Solar panels could also be considered as a possible source of shade for the major bicycle pathway in the open space buffer along the northern edge of the site. (See, Arizona State Solar Parasol at Appendix 26) and to provide renewable energy production in close proximity to student housing.

PROJECT SITE

The West Village neighborhood is located to the immediate west of Highway 113 and the main campus, between Russell Boulevard and Hutchison Drive. The Project site consists of approximately 22 acres located in the West Village neighborhood, bounded by Acer Street to the north, the Viridian and Solstice apartments to the east, an agricultural buffer to the west, and unimproved land to be used as a new surface parking lot to be designed, owned and operated by the University to the south. The Project site is directly adjacent to the Solstice and Viridian apartment complexes that are owned by West Village Community Partnership, LLC and operated by Greystar.

The Project site is presently unimproved. The Campus is undertaking soil sampling to determine if there is Naturally Occurring Asbestos (“NOA”) present on the Project site. The soil report will be shared with the short-listed Developers as an Addendum to this Stage 2.

All utilities are available to the site. UC Davis staff believes that utility capacities are adequate to serve the Project; however, the Developer will be expected to confirm the adequacy of utilities and will be responsible for all utility costs/fees as a cost of the Project, including any connection fees for campus utilities. Electricity will likely be served by PG&E from the north end of the Project site, while the wet utilities including domestic water, storm water, and sewer will be served by UC Davis campus infrastructure from the south end of the Project site.

UC Davis will require that the design of the Project be all electric and meet a zero net energy standard as well as all provisions of the UC Sustainable Practices Policy (See, Appendix 2) and take into account the UC Carbon Neutrality Initiative (See, Appendix 3).

The selected Developer will be required to comply with the Memorandum of Agreement Re: University of California, Davis—West Village, Department of Industrial Relations Coverage Determination Public Works Case No. 2010-024, December 20, 2013 dated January 15, 2016. (See, Appendix 20.)

As the site is University-owned, the Project is not subject to the zoning and building ordinances of local jurisdictions, including building permits and inspections. Project approvals are summarized in Subsection D., below.