NC Central plans new buildings, university expansion in ‘Millennial Campus’ project
N.C. Central students could have more affordable places to live, plus spaces to learn and watch athletic events as part of the university’s planned Millennial Campus.
The 30-acre district will take up over a quarter of the campus along Fayetteville, Lawson and Lincoln streets and Alston Avenue.
The district has been five years in the making, starting when the UNC System approved it in 2018. The university plans to use the district to repurpose aging buildings, construct new recreational and research facilities and buy more land to put them on.
To finance these new initiatives, the university will turn to private developers. Akua Matherson, vice chancellor of administration and finance, said the first of these partnerships will be to build affordable off-campus apartments.
“What we don’t have around North Carolina Central that we have at some of our other institutions is affordable student housing,” she said. “There’s one thing to have housing on campus as a student; there’s another to have your own student apartment.”
On-campus housing full
The university is at about 98% capacity for on-campus housing for the coming year, even with three residential facilities added in the past three years. The new buildings, Lawson Street Residential Complex, Alston Avenue Apartments and George Street Residential Complex, added nearly 1,300 semi-suite and apartment-style beds to the campus.
First-year and sophomore students are required to live on campus.
“Once you get into that junior year and also graduate and law students, what we have found is that affordable student housing is missing near our campus,” Matherson said.
Many complexes require students to sign full leases for entire apartments, she said. A more affordable option would let students lease housing by the room or bed, like with on-campus housing.
“Instead of signing a lease that binds you to a two-bedroom facility, it’s binding you to a room that can be switched out,” she said. “That’s much more feasible for students on a financial aid plan to work with.”
According to the U.S. Department of Education, nearly three-quarters of NCCU’s 7,553 students receive federal loans.
The average cost of attendance for in-state students is about $25,000, with $6,542 going to tuition and around $11,864 for room and board. Out-of-state students’ average cost is almost $38,000, with about half for tuition.
The proposed off-campus apartments would not be part of the university, but Matherson said NCCU will work with private developers to make them affordable.
“Having an apartment, that’s where you start learning how to be an adult,” she said. “So, just having some apartments that are not connected with the university but are available to students, having that around and near our campus would be helpful and ensures our continued enrollment growth.”
Athletics and land acquisition
The Millennial Campus will also help NCCU expand its athletic facilities with a Health and Human Performance Center and convocation space.
The center could cost $52.7 million, with spaces for physical training, strength conditioning and sports performance programs.
The convocation center will likely be a multi-use space for anything from basketball and volleyball tournaments to university events like graduations. According to NCCU’s master plan, it could have 8,000 to 12,000 seats and cost $139.3 million.
Matherson said the university will also rent out the space to private and government entities to generate money for other campus needs.
“We are in a hot market down Fayetteville Street and Alston Avenue,” she said. “There is a lot of development there. So, we are in a competition to see if we can expand the campus borders.”
NCCU hopes to build the convocation center on land it purchases between Price and Alston avenues, she said.
The university is also looking for land between Fayetteville Street and Burlington Avenue for tennis courts, baseball fields and softball fields.
Dining and other Phase 1 projects
The off-campus affordable housing initiative and proposed athletic arena are both Phase 2 initiatives of the Millennial Campus project. On Monday, the university shared updates on Phase 1 projects with the Durham County Board of Commissioners.
Phase 1 includes:
- 4.3 acres of parking
- A new School of Business building
- Restaurants like Panera Bread, Panda Express and Freshens
Even with these new dining options, NCCU’s campus is in a food desert, without nearby grocery stores where students can buy affordable produce and other nutritious foods. The closest is a Food Lion a 13-minute walk away.
Commissioner Nida Allam asked if the university is also looking at adding a grocery store or bodega.
Matherson said the school’s dining partner, Aramark, is working with the Black Farmers Market association to set up a monthly Saturday market on NCCU’s intramural track. The university also has a hydroponics station in the dining hall where students can access fresh vegetables and herbs.
Phase 1 will come to a close as construction on the new School of Business building wraps up in the next 45 days. Matherson said the school and other Millennial Campus projects will create more revenue-generating opportunities to partner on with private businesses.
“We’re trying to leverage some of the momentum we received in the last year with some of the growth on our campus and in particular athletics,” she said. “We are looking now to see if we can’t leverage the convocation center as more of a priority than what we had before. So, we’re going to be aggressively approaching how we make that work.”
