$100 million dorm project expected to be completed in 2027
By NOAH HARRIS — features@theaggie.org
New construction is starting at UC Davis in its northwest campus as the Segundo Infill Housing Project commences — a massive project that will eventually result in a new residence hall in the Segundo dorm area.
On Feb. 1, Parking Lots 16 and 22 were officially closed down next to Primero Grove and Regan Hall on campus, marking the first noticeable change resulting from the project. Barriers have been erected, and on Wednesday, Feb. 5, workers began to start ushering people away from the bike path to the west of the area.
There are currently no additional plans to build parking to compensate for the loss, as Lot 22 will be closed permanently and Lot 16 will only partially reopen, according to the project manager.
The project’s estimated completion date is July 2027, and it is estimated to cost $100 million. There will be approximately 494 beds in the five-story building, with around 60% of the rooms for double occupancy and 40% for triple occupancy. However, all rooms will be large enough for triple occupancy if needed.
Laura Blosser, the senior project manager of the project, described the time frame for completion of the building.
“We want student occupancy in fall of 2027,” Blosser said. “So if we can complete in May or June from the contractor’s side, then our student housing offices have enough time to put in all the furniture.”
Jeff Fuller, who is the project director for McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., the contracting company building the new residence hall, was optimistic about the timeframe.
“We feel like the schedule is very doable,” Fuller said. “The building’s going to go up extremely fast. Most of the calendar year 2026 will be kind of like building out the inside of the building, so we feel very confident of being able to get the project done on time, if not early.”
This project will be funded with $1.75 million of housing reserves. The other $98,297,000 will be through external financing. It is anticipated that significant debt will accumulate as a result, with a projection of the average annual debt service for years one and two at $4.2 million, and for years three through 30 at $6.1 million.
With a loss of parking space, issues could present themselves during students’ annual move-in time. However, Shelby Slutzker, the engagement and marketing specialist for UC Davis Transportation Services, said that this hurdle is not projected to be difficult to overcome.
“Event parking will have to be distributed to other nearby lots, which will vary depending on where the event is held,” Slutzker said via email. “Moove-In won’t be majorly impacted because we use Lot 25 (Segundo) and Lot 46 (Tercero) for move-in operations.”
Lot 25, referred to by Slutzker, is located next to the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC) on the UC Davis campus.
Slutzker acknowledged that the closing of parking lots would cause change on the UC Davis campus, but she did not see it as a cause for concern.
“We do anticipate that losing those lots will result in somewhat of a redistribution or rebalancing of parking across campus facilities, especially impacting those nearby parking areas like lots 14, 25, Quad and even Pavilion,” Slutzker said. “We always anticipate the impact to be greater after the initial change but after some time goes by, we will see that rebalancing.”
While there has not been much construction occurring aboveground, changes will soon be visible in the Segundo dorm area.
“I think a lot of [the time], on sites, you don’t see anything,” Blosser said. “It’s not impressive looking for a little while because they’ll be doing the underground stuff first. I would say by April and May, you’ll start to see stuff coming up out of the ground.”
Blosser discussed the issue of noise and acknowledged the impacts of the situation.
“[For construction], our typical hours are 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.,” Blosser said. “And we’ve said that during finals weeks, they’ll start at 8 a.m. instead. There’s a little bit of flexibility to try to, you know, we understand people are sleeping here and that’s rough. It won’t be that noisy once the first couple of months go by.”
Similarly, Fuller said that while construction will be noisy, there are plans to limit the amount of inconvenience to nearby students.
“Construction is inherently a fairly noisy operation,” Fuller said. “Some activities are […] noisier than others. We work with the campus on doing the noisier activities at a later start time in the morning so as to not be too disruptive to the students.”
This construction comes after 2018, when UC Davis anticipated that the on-campus student population could grow from approximately 33,825 (2016-2017 academic year) to approximately 39,000 (2030-2031 academic year), necessitating the need for more on-campus housing, especially given a stated commitment to ensuring 48% of students living in Davis are on campus.
There were three initial alternative proposals to the current plans that were rejected. Alternative one involved renovating buildings in Primero Grove or the Regan Hall dorm area, alternative two involved replacing the entire area of Segundo and alternative three was a Public-Private partnership — where a private company would pay for the new building and would lease it back to UC Davis. The building itself was modeled from existing residential areas on campus.
As of right now, there are no plans to add additional space to the Segundo Dining Commons. Amenities in the new residence building include covered bike parking, some of which will be in a locked area, and a “Zoom Room” for video meetings. There will also be nooks to sit in and a grassy area outside. More information on the Segundo Infill Housing Project can be found on the UC Davis Design and Construction Management website.
Written by: Noah Harris — features@theaggie.org
