As private developers eye major student housing projects off of Clemson's campus, the university is plotting a course for its own housing growth.

The university recently submitted plans to the state for major upcoming projects through the annual Comprehensive Permanent Improvement Plan process or CPIP.

Clemson is proposing to add 151,000 square feet and 430 beds of apartment-style housing at the Lightsey Bridge complex, which is across from the state botanical garden. The estimated cost is $60 million, including $3 million to renovate the existing commons building, according to the document submitted to the state. The school also is looking to renovate and tear down other dorms.

The university already has built apartments at Lightsey Bridge; the first set was completed in 1991 and the second in 2001.

Kathy Hobgood, assistant vice president for student affairs and executive director of housing and dining, said "if stars align" the goal would be to open the new housing in Fall of 2022.

Those stars include getting approval from the state Joint Bond Review Committee to borrow money for the project and approval from the university Board of Trustees. Hobgood estimates the approval process would take approximately 12 to 18 months. She said the university would not be asking the sate to fund the project.

Clemson's housing and dining service is self-funded. For the 2019 to 2020 academic year, housing rates increased 3.3% on average and meal plan prices increased 4.5%, according to the cost presentation made to the Board of Trustees in May. Prices vary depending on the building, number of people in a unit, type of bathroom and other factors.

For the upcoming school year, contracts for the existing Lightsey Bridge units are between $8,422 and $9,236 per person. The cheapest units on campus are on Bryan Mall at $4,038.

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"As with all projects, the university will continue to evaluate alternative scopes, however, the proposed plan was determined to be the best option based on available land, current needs, and anticipated demands," the university said in its submission to the state.

Hobgood said the purpose of the proposal is to let the state "know what's on our radar."

While the Lightsey project would create 430 new beds in the long-term, the university would likely not gain that room in the short term, Hobgood said. Instead, the beds would create the flexibility to shut down and renovate other dormitories.

The three high-rise and three low-rise dormitories that constitute the Bryan Mall on campus were built between 1963 and 1972, according to the plans submitted to the state. Hobgood said the university studied whether to demolish these buildings, but said they have "good bones," so the plan is to renovate instead.

Hobgood said the goal would be to shut down and renovate the buildings—Barnett, Smith and Mauldin, Byrnes, Lever and Manning—one or two at a time, using the capacity created with the Lightsey addition to do so.

"The buildings will have a new 40-year lifespan when we're done," Hobgood said.

Other buildings on campus are slated for demolition.

Hobgood said Thornhill Village, which includes 178 beds across duplex units is "at the end of its life-cycle" at 60 years old.

According to the university's Long-range Framework Plan from 2017, that land could eventually be used for higher-density housing.

"From a land-use perspective for the institution, does it make sense for us to have little duplex houses?" Hobgood said.

The university's Long-range Framework Plan projected a deficit of 796 on-campus beds by 2020 with 26,300 graduate and undergraduate students projected in 2026.

Off campus developers are watching this proposed enrollment growth closely.

Even if proposed developments at Dockside, Keowee Trail and 405 College Avenue come to fruition in Clemson, Todd Steadman, the city's director of planning and codes, said he still projects a need for additional beds.

Brent Little, president of Fountain Residential Partners of Dallas, Texas, is the developer working on the Dockside proposal at the site of the old Holiday Inn in Clemson. At a June 11 public input meeting, Little was asked whether more student housing was really needed. He said he would give the "ugly answer."

"This market will get overbuilt and there will be winners and losers," Little said. "There will be more product built here than is needed. It happens in every marketplace."

Little estimates that the market will get over-saturated to the point where housing developments are around 80% occupancy before developers will "react" and stop building.

Geig Lee is a property manager and maintenance supervisor for Foothills Property Management, which oversees 515 individual rental units. At the moment, Foothills' vacancy rate is about 1%, Lee said.

With new buildings in town, he said his company is having to "work harder" and "reach a little further" to fill their properties, but he said there is enough demand in the market to go around, and he anticipates that continuing.

He is more concerned over the traffic from big developments than he is about them taking a slice out of his business.

"Being a Clemson resident, born here in Clemson, it is not what I really wanted to happen to my town, but in the business I am in, who am I to complain," Lee said of the developments.

Jeremy Tackett, co-owner of Carolina Real Estate has had a different experience. He believes there are already "far too many" units in town, which is making it harder for him to rent properties. He manages some properties for people that are depending on their Clemson investments in retirement.

"I will stand here and yell that we are not full, not even close," Tackett said by email. "Due to the amount of approved student housing projects (already completed in the past few years and approved to be started in the next few years), there is no way to be 100% full."

Hobgood said she is not concerned about how off-campus development may impact demand for on-campus housing. First year students are required to live on campus, with some limited exceptions.

Currently, Hobgood said 98% of freshman and 35% of sophomores live on campus, and she sees residential housing as part of Clemson's "institutional DNA."

She said the university does look at market rates though when setting housing prices.

Other major projects on the university to-do list submitted to the state include $21 million roadway improvements, $26 million to renovate Long Hall, $35 million to renovate Martin Hall, $110 million to construct an Advanced Materials Innovation Complex, $10 million to demolish Johnstone Hall and the old university union building, $10 million to renovate the Tillman auditorium, $30 million to renovate Lehotsky Hall and $60 million to renovate and expand Daniel Hall.

Upgrades to Memorial Stadium are also slated, but the projected costs have not been specified.