University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa to Build New Student Housing

The Board of Regents for the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa recently approved the construction of a new student housing facility on campus, according to a university news release. The facility has an estimated cost of $156.9 million and is scheduled for completion by the beginning of the fall 2025 semester. The project will be privately financed as part of a public-private partnership (P3) with Greystar Real Estate Partners, who officially partnered with the university in June 2020.

The facility will have the capacity for 558 beds across 316 units (either one-, two-, three-, or four-bedroom) in two buildings of 18 stories and 12 stories. The community will also include amenities like a childcare facility, café and retail space, study rooms, laundry facilities, a mailroom, outdoor amenity spaces, and bike storage, the news release reports.

“This is a priority project for UH, as it will provide our students with new and additional housing opportunities right here on campus,” said Jan Gouveia, UH Vice President of Administration. “This new student housing facility will have a long-lasting impact on our campus community as it addresses multiple needs, including providing more quality and affordable housing options, on-campus childcare, and additional retail services.”

According to the terms of the agreement, Greystar completed the facility’s design and environmental assessment as well as obtained the required discretionary approvals, according to the news release. The project will be owned, operated, and maintained by the non-profit student housing entity Collegiate Housing Foundation. The new student housing facility is the second P3 project of its kind on the UH campus.

“This is just the latest example of UH’s goal of developing alternative revenue streams to affordably build modern educational facilities without raising tuition and being overly reliant on taxpayers,” said UH Vice President for Budget and Finance and CFO Kalbert Young.

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Can AI Help Build Stronger Communities in Student Housing?

    Student housing success is shifting from operational performance to student experience, with belonging now at the center. A recent 2025 report underscores a growing emphasis on student well-being, community, and engagement, signaling that expectations now extend beyond logistics to ensure students feel supported in their living environments. AI is enabling that shift by reducing administrative workload and giving teams more time to focus on meaningful student engagement.

  • Higher Ed is Betting on New Buildings While Quietly Undermining Their Campuses — Here’s Why

    In this climate, the owner’s representative has changed from a delivery-focused advisor to a strategic campus partner. Institutions are increasingly relying on owner’s reps not just to manage, cope, schedule, and budget, but also help evaluate whether a project should proceed at all.

  • Spaces4Learning Launches 2026 Facilities and Construction Brief Survey

    Spaces4Learning recently launched the 2026 Facilities and Construction Brief Survey, which collects data on the previous year’s K–12 and higher education construction projects nationwide.

  • Designing for Every Mind

    Learning environments have the power to shape not just what students know, but who they become. When a school is designed with genuine empathy—for the full range of ways students think, sense, and engage with the world—it becomes more than a building. It becomes a catalyst for growth, confidence, and belonging. That is the animating idea behind neurodiverse design, and it is one that is transforming how more architects and designers are thinking about school design.