News & Insights

This post originally appeared on the P3 Resource Center.

What do you do when you’re home to world-class performing arts, 19 D1 sports, arts and culture amenities, and much more, but lack the infrastructure to host interested visitors? California State University, Northridge (CSUN) believes it needs to build a campus hotel / conference center.

For decades CSUN has been considering a campus hotel / conference center, with demand steadily increasing. CSUN’s home, the San Fernando Valley, has expanded to 2 million residents, and is still lacking hotel facilities near the campus. The need is clear: the university is looking for opportunities to host conferences and events, and the San Fernando Valley has grown considerably so that business won’t rely solely on campus-related visitors.

Financially, though, CSUN recognized some challenges. First, the self-development of projects of this type normally requires 30–35% equity. Second, CSUN recognized that its strength currently did not lay in hotel / conference center management.

With needs and obstacles identified, CSUN turned to a P3. With over a billion dollars’ worth of experience in facilities and infrastructure construction, CSUN knew it technically could build a hotel using its own equity and expertise, but could it operate that hotel? By engaging with a private partner, Corvias, CSUN will shift the responsibility, and by association the risk, of management to a private firm with experience running hospitality operations.

Through this partnership, CSUN relinquishes some of its control over the facility’s operations, which is why it was key for the school to find a P3 partner with shared goals that properly incentivize all parties. From here, CSUN is looking forward to enjoying a new core to the campus, with opportunities for internships, operational studies, industry experience, and much more.

This article is an abbreviated version of a Higher Ed P3 Resource Center article; read the full piece. If you’re curious for more on the topic of campus hotels / conference centers, read this Higher Ed P3 Resource Center piece to discover the why/how/trends.