Student housing options close to campus will expand in the near future for Columbia Basin College students.

The city of Pasco has issued the initial building permit for the college’s next student complex, which will be on the northeast corner of the campus at 20th Avenue and Argent Road.

Construction is expected to begin this summer and wrap up in the fall of 2026, Elizabeth Burtner, CBC’s assistant vice president for marketing and outreach told the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business. The college currently has the project out for bid and will announce the contractor later this spring.

Once completed, the five-story approximately 54,000-square-foot building will have 47 residential units with capacity for up to 160 students. It was designed by RGU Architecture and NAC Architecture.

The first phase of the project will cost an estimated $8.4 million, with the total cost of the project closer to $28 million.

While the college is putting some of its reserve funds toward the project, the bulk of the funding is anticipated to be from an allocation in the state’s 2025-27 capital projects budget for community and technical colleges. As of April 8, both the state Senate and House included $18 million for the project in their proposed capital budgets.

CBC opened its first student dormitory, Sunhawk Hall, in 2017 and it has been at or near capacity since 2021.

Burtner said the college intended to build this second dorm adjacent to Sunhawk Hall on the other side of 20th Avenue, but the college was unable to acquire the land needed. That led to the decision to site the new dorm on land the college already owned.