Student housing is coming to Northern New Mexico College and it is coming fast. Walk onto the college’s Española campus and flyers large and small are available for the taking. Even the home page of Northern’s website displays an ad for “Student Life @ Northern!”
The Northern New Mexico College Board of Regents approved the contract during a special meeting Oct. 4 with Momentum LLC, the development company. The project, which is estimated at approximately $10 million, is being funded through a private-public partnership.
When the idea first came to the Board, Monument LLC’s President Tim Pitcher said during a meeting Sept. 10, the Northern New Mexico College Foundation would be an eligible partner to enter into the agreement. However, at present, the Foundation will not participate in the partnership. Foundation President Lisa Rosendorf said the Foundation requested more information at the last meeting, but has not received it from the college. Rosendorf said the Foundation board will not take action until the information is received.
Northern’s Vice President of Advancement Ricky Serna, said the private-public partnership will be between Northern and Monument LLC.
“The private entity in the partnership is Monument,” Serna said. “Monument will be responsible for finding the investments.”
Ryan Cordova, athletic director at Northern, was approved by the Board of Regents to act as the contact person between Monument LLC and Northern. Cordova said Monument LLC will be the sole investor — the party responsible for paying the approximate $10 million price tag for the housing project.
“Currently, we’re working on how we’re going to pay that (money) back. We’ve had talks and we have options on how we want to finance this,” Cordova said.
As a private partner, Cordova said Monument LLC has already selected the architect and begun the feasibility study and master plan. Cordova said at this point, the goal is to break ground by Dec. 1.
The dorms will be built on the property west of the Children, Youth and Families Department building on North Railroad Avenue, Cordova said. The property is currently owned by Northern.
“It’s an ideal location,” Cordova said.
At this point, Northern has had two in-person meetings with Monument LLC, during which time discussions focused on financing, a master plan, location of the dorms and potential floor plans. Cordova said the master plan the firm presented builds off the culture of the Española Valley and the college.
“We’re going to incorporate the water into the design,” Cordova said.
Cordova said because of the acequias, water has been an essential part of life for Northern and in the valley. The college uses water from acequias to irrigate its farm land. One potential way of showing this connection is by adding a waterfall in a new, central area for students to hang out and congregate.
“By adding dorms, the center of the campus is going to shift, so we need to strategically place things,” Cordova said.
Cordova said the location is a nice walking distance from the main campus, which will tie into the next part of the master plan, which is revisioning Northern as a pedestrian campus by building new walkways and bike paths.
As far as the dorms, Cordova said Northern is currently looking at building three buildings: a family-style housing unit, a freshman student housing unit, and an apartment-style upperclassmen unit. However, before the decision is finalized, Monument LLC will complete its feasibility study and student surveys. Cordova said student surveys are being distributed via the website, through emails to current students and by the recruitment office. Cordova said the recruitment office has received the most feedback.
“The results so far have been very positive,” he said.
But vice president of Northern’s student senate Sammy LeDoux does not agree.
“The majority of students live near or in the vicinity of the campus, and most are apathetic or angry that the dorms are being built.” Le Doux said. “Most of them see it as an unnecessary addition to the college. And they already have dorms in El Rito that are underutilized.”
LeDoux said as far as the surveys were concerned, the survey was sent out to current students only via their Northern email. LeDoux said many students never check that email, but he does, and he never received it.
“The positive feedback is based on an extremely limited group of individuals,” Le Doux said.