Anne Macdonald is the Assistant Vice President of Spaces and Experiences at the University of Toronto. She has more than two decades experience leading and managing large teams in non-profit environments, with revenue generation as a key focus.
Student housing is handled a bit differently at U of T these days, is that right?
Yes! Our department used to be Ancillary Services, which was, frankly, an awful name and just didn't properly reflect the importance of what we do. We’re now under the Space & Experiences banner.
We provide student housing, family housing, we even have a faculty housing program. We cover hospitality and catering and meal plans for students. We take care of real estate and things like parking operations and on-campus planning. So it’s a huge team, and very much focused on the U of T space and experience.
And one of the benefits of this new department is that we have much closer relationships between all of the operational teams and the vice provost student's office – so it’s a partnership between operations and student life, which is wonderful.
Student housing is bursting out of the headlines recently and for good reason. Have you noticed a shift in attitude towards student housing either internally at U of T or externally with colleagues from other institutions?
Yes, definitely.
I would say internally, people are certainly taking notice and we’re talking about housing a lot more at strategic tables at the institution.
And this goes back to us not calling ourselves ancillary anymore - housing is just a fundamental thing that should be a core service. So there's definitely more conversation.
For many, many years, Toronto has been a challenging market for students and for young people, right? It's starting to become challenging now even for our staff and faculty. We have staff members who now work and live in Brampton and Mississauga and further afield. People are moving further and further because they're looking for affordable housing, right? Affordability is one of the big conversations that we have now.
“we're in a huge city with apparently more construction cranes than Dubai, so if we're going to build right, and we're going to build on our own dime, we have to build buildings that aren't luxury condos, right?”
So when it comes to actually launching a student housing project, we've heard that obviously the big obstacle is securing funding or a loan. Beyond the finance aspect, what have you seen in terms of obstacles towards really getting something done?
Well *laughs*, finance is a big one. Just touching back on affordability, we're in a huge city with apparently more construction cranes than Dubai, so if we're going to build right, and we're going to build on our own dime, we have to build buildings that aren't luxury condos, right?
So, the question really is how do we build buildings in this environment that makes sense for our community, that makes sense for students, right? So we’re focused on adapting - building smaller units, like micro suites like Andrew's doing at UBC and all that good stuff.
But, at the end of the day, if there's a zoning envelope that says you can have 20 stories and your costs are going to be, $1,000 a square foot or some crazy number, a student housing product that makes any kind of sense. So planning and getting ahead of what your demand is and what your numbers are absolutely critical.
So to answer your question, zoning restrictions can be huge. There's challenges with, you know, density and the cost of construction in this very, very, very overheated environment that we're in. We just had to shelve a student housing project that escalated by 40 million. It started off as a 40 million project. And then it became a 60 million project. And then it became a 100 million project. It's just... The building didn't get bigger, by the way.
We talk a lot about a proactive approach to student housing, and how it serves institutions, students, and communities. What kind of value have you seen student housing generate beyond just avoiding the mess that we're in right now?
Well, it's an incredibly positive thing for the institution and for students to be on (or close to) the campus, right? It just is. There's so much data on that. And it also makes the campus more vibrant if there's more people living here, it doesn't empty out at night.
It's very important. It's better for students. The entire academic experience is better. It enlivens and enriches the campus. And I’ll talk about some of the approaches that we've developed recently, which have helped us over the affordability hurdles. And that’s dabbling into the realm of public/private partnerships. We recognize that we can't. We can't do everything ourselves. It's just, it's not possible with the capital requirements being too significant.
But we also want to be very active partners because we don't just want to outsource housing. We just know that housing is just really central to the community, to the university experience, right? So we're trying to be very active partners. Examples of that with the new Harmony Commons that has been just opened this year, that's been thanks to a partnership.
We also have a partnership with the Daniels Corporation down on the downtown campus. We're building a residence building that we'll deliver next summer. So this gives us an opportunity to sort of work with constructors and developers that are experienced in delivering projects in this environment. And we stay closely at the table because we want our students to have a great experience that is consistent with the experience that they would have if they were in one of our own owned residences.
So that helps us a great deal because we're using the skill sets of each partner appropriately. We're really thinking that this is probably the way of the future for us.
“It comes down to delivering something that students actually want.”
So, in your experience, how pivotal is a data-driven approach when it comes to proper planning?
Oh my goodness, of course it’s pivotal. I recall working with CRI when we were looking at our overall housing portfolio and trying to determine the actual demand that was about there - what students wanted and how much they were willing to pay.
I'm really focused on cost in this conversation because we're just so obsessed with it. Especially because of that project I told you about, the one we had to pause, that really hit us hard because we were just so looking forward to having additional beds.
It comes down to: we want to be delivering something that students actually want.
We want housing that fits the situation, that meets their needs. It takes so long to deliver a project that you want to be sure that you are building and delivering the right thing that makes sense, and that's going to be flexible going forward because it's an asset that you're going to have for a long time.
So, gathering all of that information, gathering that data, making sure that you're building the right thing, making sure that you have information about what's on students' minds, and what they want to see in their housing experience – it's absolutely critical.
You need to understand all of the above before you lay the first brick. And sometimes affordability comes with trade offs, right? A student may live right on campus and have a nice space, and have supports X, Y, Z, but, they may have to have a roommate, because they can't afford to have a single room.
So gauging the interest for these different configurations, super important to keep testing regularly. Aligning your plans with your demand and not basing it on guesswork or, you know, hopes and dreams.
Lastly, any advice for schools that are looking to align those residence strategies with their enrollment goals?
I’d say collaboration between academic divisions and the ancillary departments is crucial, without a doubt. Because very often those conversations happen at different tables, and there just absolutely needs to be coordination and collaboration there.
And obviously, consult your data. Don’t wing it.