As its health system juggles the fallout from a failed downtown development deal, VCU’s real estate division remains in deal-making mode with a new acquisition around its Monroe Park campus.
The average full-time in-state undergrad will pay about $16,200 per semester, but the university will still have a nearly $60 million budget gap for the coming school year.
The known cost for the health system to walk away from the project on the site of the city’s Public Safety Building appears to be closer to $80 million – and could end up being higher.
“With this amount, how many students are robbed of attending VCU in scholarships? Most importantly, what actions are being taken to ensure that enormous wastes like these are prevented in the future?” Wilder said in Tuesday’s press conference.
Amid inflation and supply chain challenges, VCU expects it will cost tens of millions more to build the sizable new arts building it’s planning downtown.
VCU Health revealed the payment Friday in response to a FOIA request from BizSense. The payment let the health system back out of the project and the 25-year lease it signed months into the pandemic.
Built on the site of the former Franklin Street Gym, the new 168,000-square-foot, six-story building brings added lab, classroom and office space to the university’s College of Humanities and Sciences.
Class is now in session at Regency, as the Henrico County school division’s new adult education center at the mall held its first GED and English-as-a-second-language classes last week.
The Nest Schools has entered the Richmond-area market with a school in Mechanicsville, while a new location of The Goddard School has opened at Regency mall.
The university is also considering a 6 percent increase to the mandatory fees students pay. It would bring the annual cost of a full course load to more than $16,000 for in-state undergraduates.
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