When Rich Cummins became president of Columbia Basin College in 2008, one of his goals was to provide student housing on the Pasco campus.

It’s taken some time, but the school’s first on-campus student housing unit should be ready by fall 2017.

“When I interviewed for this job in 2008, I said I’d like to build a planetarium, a residence for students and an international student program,” said Cummins. “Little did I know that the stock market would fall out in 2008.”

Demand for student housing

Cummins knew there was an interest in student housing.

“Years ago we did a study to determine feasibility for student housing,” he said. “We found there was a pretty good demand for it.”

It took until 2013 before Cummins felt the economy was strong enough to try building that student housing.

“So I’ve had it in my sights for a long time,” Cummins said.

Frank Murray, communications director for CBC, said the project is supported with private money.

“(CBC is) not building it,” he said. “We will not own it, and no state taxpayer dollars are being used for it. It is strictly a private venture. We will just manage it.”

The project is financed by Sigma Financial Group I L.P.

Dick Hoch is one of the company’s principals.

“The first phase will cost between $6 million and $7 million,” said Hoch, who has been a big supporter of CBC and serves on the CBC Foundation Board.

The project should take three phases, with this first including 45 units and 126 beds.

The housing will be located across from the school on 20th Avenue, near the airport and next to Sun Willows Golf Course.

Earlier this year, CBC bought just under five acres from the city of Pasco for $796,000.

“The first phase should be ready for the fall quarter in 2017,” Cummins said. “We hope to get a lot of data off of the first phase. If everything goes well, the second phase would be done in 2019, and the third would be done in 2021. We could fill that five-acre parcel with 350 students.”

Cummins didn’t have much experience with student housing, but Tyrone Brooks did.

Brooks was hired in 2015 to become CBC’s vice president of administrative services.

More important, Brooks had residence hall experience when he previously worked at the University of Idaho.

“What we’re looking to achieve is how do we improve our students’ success? One way is we can be supportive with their living environment,” Brooks said.

Both Cummins and Brooks cite studies that show students who live on campus have great success in school.

“The drive for it is student success,” Cummins said. “We feel that ultimately, we’ll graduate more students.”

Destination programs

Another reason to build student housing?

“We’re starting to see more of a transition from CBC being a commuter school to a community asset as a college,” Brooks said.

And it’s a trend that’s growing.

According to Murray, CBC enrolls 7,418 students, both full and part time.

Programs at CBC such as nursing, project management and cyber security education have become draws, attracting students from outside the region.

“The three groups this would benefit are the bachelor niche, the student-athlete and the international student,” said Cummins.

Scott Rogers, CBC’s athletic director, likes the idea of on-campus student housing.

Only Northwest Athletic Association East Division rivals Yakima Valley and Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake currently offer on-campus student housing.

“(The new CBC housing) will be a nice addition to what we are already able to offer in terms of local housing,” Rogers said. “Having most of the out-of-area athletes possibly in one supervised location, across the street from the college, will be a huge bonus for us.”

But, Rogers added, “without knowing the cost of a unit, I don’t know if there will be an advantage or not.”

Cummins and Brooks believe there will be.

“The design of it is unique, and we asked for very small square footage to drive the rent costs down,” Cummins said. “For a one-person unit, it should be about 256 square feet.”

Brooks said CBC wants to make it as simple as possible for students.

“Students will pay for their rent, which will include utilities. Then all they have to worry about is food,” he said.

Rustin Hall of ALSC Architects in Spokane, a CBC graduate, is leading the project.

Cummins said students will save money on gas by living on campus, and that work-study programs could be available on campus so they could make some money.

Then there are other costs being saved, thanks to today’s college student and cellphones.

“At the University of Idaho, we didn’t have any landlines, and we were talking about dropping cable service because everyone was into streaming,” Brooks said.

Brooks said he’s hoping to get the initial rental model for pricing by April or May.

But things are looking good early in the process.

“For me to be really happy, I’m looking for a minimum 95 percent occupancy rate,” Brooks said. “The closer we get to 100 percent, the closer we get to talk to the developers about the next phase. I’ll be a really happy guy if we get 100 percent full.”

Cummins is confident that can happen.

“This place is going to continue to grow,” he said. “It’s a great place to be.”