It is no secret that the student housing industry was impacted significantly by the COVID-19 pandemic. Few groups felt that more accutely than colleges and universities. New on-campus development slowed dramatically as higher education institutions shifted their focus primarily to keeping classes in session while maintaining student safety. Moving out of the pandemic, new residence hall development has picked up once again — even accelerating past levels seen prior to the pandemic in certain markets. And the focus for many of these new projects is providing collaboration space and allowing for plenty of study room, while keeping costs at a minimum. “When the pandemic started in spring 2020, public-private partnership (P3) activity slowed dramatically as universities and the private sector were forced to address the more immediate issues relating to distance learning implementation, newly enacted health and safety protocols, and mandated government shutdowns,” says James Wilhelm, executive vice president with American Campus Communities (ACC). “However, by fall 2020, certain universities resumed their planning and procurement activities in an effort to position themselves to commence P3 project development in early 2022,” Wilhelm continues. “Since the fall of 2021, we’ve seen P3 planning and procurement activity steadily increase to more normal levels. …
