Westdale’s potential new student housing upgrade

Working towards a goal of providing further residence space for first-year students, McMaster University has purchased a group of nine houses surrounding campus for $9.5 million with a plan to develop a multi-storey, student residence building.

McMaster purchased a cluster of houses that are located adjacent to the university between Forsyth and Dalewood Avenue from Scholar Properties, an investor group that specializes in off-campus properties throughout Hamilton, London and Waterloo. The group owns several other properties within the neighbourhood and had been planning to demolish the nine houses in order to develop student residences before the sale to McMaster.

The lot provides a total of 1.45 acres of land for McMaster to develop into a multi-storey student residence complex. Working in partnership with Knightstone, a Toronto-based development company experienced in building student residences, the project is expected to be comprised of 800 beds.

There has been an incredibly high demand for on-campus student residence space in recent years. The 12 current on-campus residences are only able to house nearly 3,700 of 6,170 incoming first year students, leaving upwards of 40 per cent of first year students to look for housing alternatives.

“McMaster is at a disadvantage because it is one of the only universities in Ontario that cannot provide a first year on campus housing guarantee,” said Gord Arbeau, McMaster’s director of communications and public affairs. “This means some students coming to McMaster are left to find housing off campus, while other highly skilled and qualified applicants may choose another university.”

Once complete, this development will be managed under the McMaster residence system and allow incoming students another housing option with the same codes of conduct, services and benefits as the other residences on campus.

The project’s plan show the structure to have its highest point facing Main Street West, then to be tiered back towards Traymore Avenue, eliminating shadows on area homes while creating interesting architectural elements.

Once complete, this development will be managed under the McMaster residence system and allow incoming students another housing option with the same codes of conduct, services and benefits as the other residences on campus.

Another project in the works is the McMaster Living and Learning Centre. Currently under construction where temporary buildings T28 and T29 once stood, the new building will be compromised of 12 storeys, eight of which will be student residences. The remaining floors will consist of classrooms and student services, including the Student Wellness Centre, Student Accessibility Services and the Children’s Centre daycare.

The LLC sees a total of 500 new suite and traditional style spaces to house first year students, contributing to the ongoing demand for further residence space on campus. The project is set to be completed by September 2019.

“[The Living and Learning building and the Main Street residence] are required to meet existing demand. There is a shortfall in terms of campus housing for first-year students. With these two new residences online, well be able to better meet the current demand of first year students,” said Arbeau.

The university is currently beginning the planning stages of this new development and a completion date has not yet been determined.