Construction starting on new UWindsor student residence

University of Windsor officials are celebrating a new future for housing on campus and in the local community.

The official groundbreaking took place Monday for a new student residence.

University of Windsor Student Alliance (UWSA) president, Ghallia Hashem said students are looking forward to the new building taking shape.

“So many students talk about the residence experience and how it really shapes their university experience and how it means so much to them,” Hashem said. “It's incredibly needed. Our residence buildings are filled and to have a new place is a new opportunity for students.”

University of Windsor president Robert Gordon said the project will enhance the student experience and address a critical need for housing in Windsor.

“This is one example of many things that we’re engaged in to really support the student experience,” Gordon explained. “But it also an opportunity to provide sustainable, meaningful housing for our students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.”

The six-storey student residence will include 452 beds, including 68 barrier-free beds, distributed across 226 suites with shared bathrooms (2:1 student-to-bathroom ratio), and 12 private residence life suites. Spanning 150,000 square feet, the project has been designed to cater to the needs of students offering important amenities including six community lounges, a house lounge, shared laundry facility, and a 275-seat food hall.

It will be located on Sunset Avenue south of Wyandotte Street West. Officials say it will be strategically positioned to welcome Lancers ahead of the Fall 2025 semester.

“We are trying to work with the city, the region, private developers to really come up with solutions that make sense, that are affordable that also are going to be sustainable longer term as well, too,” Gordon said. “And so I think this is one example of how we're attempting to do that with a longer term partnership with Tilbury Capital. But certainly we see ourselves as being an important part of the broader Windsor Essex ecosystem, to really be able to solve some of these problems that are getting worse.” 

The new student residence, located on Sunset Avenue south of Wyandotte Street West, fill feature 452 beds, a house lounge, a laundry facility and a 275-seat food hall. (Source: University of Windsor)

This transformative initiative is made possible through a dynamic public-private partnership with Tilbury Capital, a real estate investment and development company with a focus on purpose-built student accommodation.

“As we put shovels in the ground, this marks the beginning of the excitement and impact that this transformative project will bring to the University, the region, and most notably future University of Windsor students for decades to come,” said Michael Kaye, partner at Tilbury Capital.

Windsor-West NDP MPP Lisa Gretzky applauded the university for trying to address the local housing crisis, saying the provincial government should step up to do more in assisting those looking for an affordable place to live.

“We need to ensure that once they do graduate from post secondary that they have an affordable place that they can then live off of campus to be able to live and work within our community,” she said.

Gretzky suggested the government start their own partnerships to continue building student housing while also reinstating rent control across Ontario.

“The government really needs to take a really close, hard look at what the university is doing and how they're addressing the affordable housing crisis from their standpoint and then look at what do we do as a province,” Gretzky said.

“This is a really good step forward on behalf of the university and I give them full credit for doing the work that they're doing. But there is a piece on the other side where the province needs to step up and ensure people have a place they can afford to live once they're done their post-graduate studies, or post secondary studies.”

Presently, the university accommodates students in three residence buildings— Alumni Hall, Cartier Hall and Laurier Hall. Each year, these buildings welcome between 150 to 350 students, in addition to the thousands residing in private, off-campus rental accommodations. 

- With files from CTV News Windsor's Chris Campbell