Orchard Park Highlights Partnerships
By Julia Ann Easley
The University of California, Davis, today (Aug. 16) celebrated the opening of its new Orchard Park neighborhood with 1,500 beds in apartments.
Part of the university’s most ambitious housing construction program, this $330 million project has helped the campus exceed a 2023 milestone to provide more campus housing in an agreement with the city of Davis and Yolo County. It is also an example of how a public-private partnership can help keep rents affordable.
UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May said access to affordable student housing was a key concern he heard raised when he came to UC Davis in 2017. “We’ve worked diligently to address this issue,” he added, citing the university’s commitment to build even more housing for students as part of the memorandum of understanding signed five years ago.
“Today marks a milestone, not just for student housing at UC Davis, but another major step in the strong town-gown relationship,” May told about 100 guests attending a brief ceremony at the site.
“The City wants to congratulate UC Davis on the grand opening of Orchard Park,” said city of Davis Vice Mayor Josh Chapman. “This is a great example of our joint collaboration and commitment to meet the housing needs of our students, and exceeds the milestone set in the 2018 MOU to provide 15,000 student beds on campus.”
As part of the event, guests toured the facilities. Students will begin moving in Sept. 5.
Overview
On a 19-acre site in the northwest corner of campus, Orchard Park comprises 11 four-story residential buildings and two community centers with exercise, study and meeting spaces. It has 189 two-bedroom apartments for students with families and 1,100 bed leases in studio, two-bedroom and four-bedroom apartments for single students. The neighborhood features green space with at least 40 heritage trees, a children’s play area, and a network of bike and pedestrian paths.
Orchard Park replaces a 200-apartment complex of the same name for students with families that was closed in 2015 after 51 years of service. Numerous graduate students have worked on committees advising on the new Orchard Park.
A family’s sneak peek
Earlier, incoming transfer student Shanice Perry and her family got a sneak peek at their new home including the children’s playground and a staged apartment. “It looks bigger than what I thought it would be,” Perry said as her husband and two children also enjoyed exploring the apartment.
The two-bedroom family apartments are about 725 square feet. Other apartments range in size from 345 square feet for a studio to 1,134 square feet for a four-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment. All feature wood-look tile flooring and include a refrigerator, oven, stove, dishwasher and microwave. Especially important for young families — their apartments include an in-unit washer and dryer.
The family apartments lease for $2,320 a month, or about 31% lower than comparable, newly constructed apartments in Davis, based on extrapolations from the university’s annual apartment survey. Most of the bed leases are in four-bedroom, two-bath apartments, and one of those rooms costs $1,040, or about 34% less than new construction comparisons in the city. Leases include wireless internet service, water, sewer, electricity and garbage services.
Partners
To make such a large housing project possible, UC Davis partnered with the nonprofit Collegiate Housing Foundation of Fairhope, Alabama, to fund it through tax-exempt bond sales and with The Michaels Organization of Camden, New Jersey, to leverage the national real estate firm’s expertise in developing affordable housing and student living communities. After 33 years, the university will own the buildings.
The neighborhood was designed by TCA Architects of Oakland, California, and the CBG Building Company of Arlington, Virginia, served as the general contractor.
Designed to be affordable
Michael Sheehan, associate vice chancellor for housing, dining and divisional operations in Student Affairs, said the campus’s involvement in each stage of the design process resulted in appropriate amenities and lower construction costs. Saving construction costs and time, the residential buildings used Prescient’s steel-stud system manufactured off site.
Orchard Park, which will offset a significant portion of its energy use with a 756-kilowatt solar energy system, is being certified under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.
Even as a public-private partnership, Orchard Park is offering another feature preferred by students: dealing directly with the university. While The Michaels Organization will maintain the buildings, the campus will be responsible for leasing, programming, custodial services and landscaping.
Campus housing
With Orchard Park, UC Davis has now opened more than 6,500 new apartment and residence hall beds since 2017 and exceeded the 2023 target of 15,000 campus beds in the memorandum of understanding.
It is estimated that more than 40% of enrolled students based in Davis now have access to campus housing, and the chancellor said the campus is working toward the goal of providing access for 48%.
About 250 beds are under construction at Aggie Square in Sacramento for fall 2025, and two projects in early planning would add about 1,000 beds to the Segundo area and West Village.
What They Say About Orchard Park
Tak Katsuura, principal, project design director, TCA Architects:
“At the corner of UC Davis, Orchard Park is nestled between heritage trees and marries an innovative architectural structural system with the natural beauty of the site. The buildings use a prefab steel Prescient system for cost and time efficiencies, and the buildings are angled to fit between trees — creating memorable gateways and intersections.”
Raoul Amescua, regional vice president of development, Michaels Student Living:
“At The Michaels Organization, we believe that housing is more than just a place to live; it is the foundation upon which meaningful connections, personal growth and academic achievement thrive. Our commitment to designing, developing and managing student living spaces at UC Davis is driven by the belief that comfortable, safe and supportive housing environments are essential in creating the ideal setting for students to thrive. Orchard Park will provide a high-quality residential experience for UC Davis students, today and for decades to come.”
Joe Coyle, president, Michaels Student Living:
“The Michaels Organization takes pride in incorporating sustainable features into our student living developments. From energy-efficient building designs to eco-friendly practices and materials, we are dedicated to contributing to the university’s broader sustainability goals. Our efforts in sustainability are not only a testament to our responsibility as developers and as parents ourselves, but also to our shared vision of building a greener and more sustainable future for the UC Davis campus and its students.”
Will Givhan, president, Collegiate Housing Foundation:
“Collegiate Housing Foundation is delighted to have assisted UC Davis with financing much needed student housing at Orchard Park on the UC Davis campus. We look forward to being a supportive partner of UC Davis through our ownership of the facility for many years to come.”
Ryan Schlesinger, senior project executive, CBG Building Company:
“CBG Building Company takes great pride in the delivery of Orchard Park. The community’s success is a testament to the collaborative partnership between UC Davis, The Michaels Organization and CBG. We are thankful for the opportunity to contribute to UC Davis’ growth — first with The Green at West Village and now with Orchard Park — and are excited to see it come to life as students and students with families take residence.”
Any insinuations that this well-designed housing development is anything like buildings in the Soviet Union or Russia constitutes packs of lies. I am tired of all of the lies and gross exaggerations in the comments sections of this site posted by NIMBYs.
Perhaps that’s the reason it appears to be something out of the Soviet Union – especially when compared with the taller Davis Live, right across the street (in the city).
Perhaps not too late for Solano Park development, though.
While it is helpful that UCD finally re-developed after 8 years at Orchard Park, it is disappointing that only 1,500 beds were added on the 19-acres site. Since the 11-building complex is only 4-stories tall, UCD could have produced twice as many beds had Orchard Park been 7-stories like the privately developed “Identity” student housing project immediately across Russell Blvd. in the City. Unfortunately, this was yet another missed opportunity for UCD to build higher density student housing to produce far more student beds.
UCD has had a long history of neglecting to produce the on-campus housing to keep pace with its accelerated student population growth over the last few decades.
https://www.davisvanguard.org/2023/08/guest-commentary-solano-park-ucds-opportunity-to-start-building-higher-density-student-housing/
But, it is not too late for UCD to get it right with the re-development of Solano Park now being planned. The question is, will UCD step-up to produce the higher density student hosuing needed on-campus like other UCs are like UC Irvine and UC San Diego?
Or, will UCD continue to under-perform relative to the other UCs by being the only UC not committed to at least 50% on campus housing. despite the fact that UCD is the largest UC with over 5,300 acres and a 900-acre core campus?
As said earlier, it is not too late for UCD to step-up as their students need them too, since apparently there still is a student housing shortage. UCD has the land and the ability to fill in that deficit of student housing, and Gov. Newsom has allocated $1.4 billion is funding for California student housing. However, it is troubling that UCD has not applied for any of that funding yet.
So, the question is, is UCD going to try to correct the student housing shortage that they have created, or are they going to continue to impact Davis and other surroundings communities with pushing over 60% of their enormous 37,000+ student population off campus?
Other UCs are working hard to provide the student housing needed for their students. Is UCD going to do the right thing like these other UCs by producing more far more and higher density student housing? Or is UCD going to continue to negatively impact their students, and surrounding communities with UCD’s housing needs by pushing the vast majority of their students off campus?
Solano Park is UCD’s opportunity to change course to build higher density housing.
Eileen, are you now a construction engineer? Or did you read the Enterprise article that I posted that pointed out that the rents at the 7-story building are 35% higher than Orchard Park due to increased construction costs?
You also keep repeating yourself with your assertions, none of them addressing my points: that other universities house only about 30%, not 50%, of their student body; that 4,400 acres at UCD are dedicated to extremely valuable agricultural and environmental research and cannot be sacrificed to satiate a disgruntled local resident; that having faculty and staff live on campus disenfranchises them from local decision making and creates an apartheid like situation that protects the privileges of local homeowners. You’re just trying to speak right past the obvious flaws and errors in your assertions.
BTW, almost none of Berkeley’s housing is “on campus”–all of the dormitory towers are in the Telegraph Avenue neighborhood, just as are the UCD master leases across Russell Blvd. The only significant “on campus” housing at UCB is at Barrington, Stern and the I-House. And the residents in the Telegraph neighbor sued to stop adding another dorm tower, so it’s apparently not “on campus.” You’re creating a fictional arrangement to justify your claims about other UCs.
In Berkeley, residents (and others) are attempting to stop UC Berkeley from building on-campus (at People’s Park – which is owned by UC Berkeley).
And yet in Davis, folks like you are attempting to discourage on-campus housing.
Go figure, if you can.
This sounds more like an argument to build on-campus, rather than off-campus.
Assuming the supposed goal to ensure that housing is as “cheap as possible”, or that it’s “somehow” the city’s responsibility in regard to UCD’s growth plans (and their own students) in the first place.
By the way, how many students aren’t even California residents these days?
But as someone else pointed out, the correct approach would be to compare the cost and revenue between two similar buildings of different heights, in the same location.
In other words, ensure that all other factors are “equal”.
In any case, how many more such developments do you suppose they can fit on their 900 acre core campus? And given that Orchard Park only/ultimately used 19 acres, do you suppose there’d be a worldwide famine if UCD started extending their buildings beyond 900 acres? (Assuming that they want to continue growing?)
And are there any “unnecessary” uses of land within the 900 acres in the first place?