THUNDER BAY -- By the start of the next school year Confederation College will be able to house more than 125 students on campus.
Construction has already begun on two of their new four-floor residence buildings, which would each house 64 students in apartment style with four bedrooms. The two buildings will be located southeast of the Fitness Centre bubble.
“I think they’ll be very successful,” Confederation College president Jim Madder said at the official ground-breaking ceremony on Friday.
“It’s convenient, close and they’ll have their own place to cook. All of those things are important.”
Those two are the first of four that the college plans to build and open by the start of the 2016 school year. Once that is completed 256 beds will be added to student residence.
Student union president Chris Cartwright said the new residence buildings will help attract students and help enrich their student experience.
“Living in a residence is a more high-density style of living so there are always social activities going on as well as physical well-being groups that play pick-up basketball, volleyball and pond hockey,” Cartwright said.
“When you’re living on your own you miss out on a lot of group activities and social experiences.”
Due to provincial regulations the college was forced to seek a private-sector partner in order to construct the new buildings.
Under city by-laws that meant they would be subjected to municipal taxes, which led to college officials to appear before city council asking for the new project to receive tax-exempt status.
Coun. Iain Angus said the addition of new housing, even though it is just for the students, will have a cascading effect in the city where affordable housing is at a premium.
“Obviously the college will use it to attract new international and out of town students to live on site and in the residence but that takes the pressure off the local community,” he said.
“We have a very low vacancy rate at 2.4 per cent, one of the lowest in Ontario, so the creation of 256 units at the college will free up probably about half that much in the community.”
The first two buildings are expected to be completed by fall of 2015.
