Quick Take
Cabrillo College President Matt Wetstein says the challenges of doing a joint housing project with the University of California are delaying the groundbreaking of the complex planned for Cabrillo's Aptos campus. That could push the opening of the 624-bed project a year later, from fall 2026 to fall 2027.
A student housing project being built jointly by Cabrillo College and UC Santa Cruz is likely to open a year later than planned, and officials worry that delay will lead to rising construction costs.
Cabrillo College President Matt Wetstein said college officials hoped to start construction on the 624-bed housing complex on Cabrillo’s campus in Aptos this September, but the complexities of doing a joint project between a community college and the University of California are slowing them down.
He estimated that the project groundbreaking is likely to be delayed about eight months, to spring or summer 2025. That will push the opening date for the student housing project from fall 2026 to fall 2027.
“It’s just like freaking me out because every month you can just see inflationary costs [going up],” he said. “It’s just gonna get more expensive. I’m losing hair.”
Wetstein said he’s not sure yet how much the costs might increase from the original total project estimate of about $181 million. He said that the estimate factors in inflation, but if costs go up over what was projected, the college could work with engineers to shift to less costly design choices or take things out of the project.
The Cabrillo-UCSC joint student housing project was among several to be accepted by the state’s Higher Education Student Housing Grant Program last year. The program originally announced in 2021 that it intended to give grants to colleges to build student housing, but the state changed its funding models last year due to California’s high debt.
While the state originally offered a grant to cover the college’s portion of the project’s costs – $111 million – officials later agreed to have the University of California finance the entire project through bonds. The UC’s portion of the project costs about $70 million.
The University of California is selling the bonds to cover the entire cost of the joint project and the state will pay the debt costs for those bonds.
Wetstein said the project is unusual in that it’s a housing project built on Cabrillo’s campus, owned by Cabrillo but will be jointly operated by UCSC and the community college. Since there are no other joint projects like it, officials are having to figure out the processes as they go.
“It’s trickier than I thought it would be,” he said. “So the legal mechanisms for getting that project launched are a little more difficult than I thought.”
For example, Cabrillo College owns the land, so the community college manages the process to select a builder for the project. However, Wetstein said, the community college wants the UC engaged with that selection process and that’s taking time.
He added that because the UC and Cabrillo are jointly planning the student services provided at the project, they have to get approvals from both the college’s governing board and the UC board of regents whenever they make changes.
Because of these complexities, Wetstein estimates that the project’s groundbreaking has been delayed about eight to nine months.
The housing project will be located next to the softball fields at Cabrillo’s Aptos campus and will create 376 beds for Cabrillo students and 248 beds for UCSC students. The housing plan includes three separate wings totaling 271 units (624 beds): a family wing with 60 units, an apartment wing with 96 units and a traditional dormitory wing with 115 units.
The complex will also have a day care and a screening entrance to control access to the facility.
Community college leaders say building housing is crucial as about 20% of community college students experience homelessness.
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