Growing UNMC Omaha campus seeks modern student housing option, aims to build six-story project

OMAHA — Responding to a growing demand from students, the University of Nebraska’s main medical training campus is diving into new territory: building new on-campus student housing. 

The University of Nebraska Medical Center hopes to self-finance a $66 million residential complex that would rise six stories southeast of 39th Street and Dewey Avenue, on the northeastern edge of its midtown Omaha home base.

UNMC intends to tap its internal lending program to fund the project tailored for its student, resident, fellow and postdoctoral population.

“Frankly, we’ve tried very hard to stay out of the housing business — but the demand signal has just been incredible,” Dr. Jeffrey Gold, longtime chancellor of Nebraska’s only public academic health science center, told the Nebraska Examiner. 

NU Board of Regents

Gold on Friday is set to present a plan to the NU Board of Regents outlining the 205,000-square-foot development that, as envisioned, would house about 300 students in a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom rental units. 

The project would usher in a modern apartment style of on-campus living different from the current hodgepodge of converted houses, duplexes and an older multi-unit building that today collectively house about 100 students on UNMC grounds. 

Thirteen of the existing units in seven houses would be demolished under the plan to make way for the new residential development, which is to feature amenities such as a grab-and-go diner and outdoor seating areas.

If given the green light, Gold said the project is likely just the start of more apartment building that UNMC hopes to be involved with to attract and make life easier for students, researchers and staff at the rapidly expanding medical campus.

Among other projects under consideration, said UNMC Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance Anne Barnes, is building an apartment structure on UNMC property along the Field Club Trail south of Leavenworth Street.

Another possibility, Gold said, involves wrapping apartments around a planned parking garage to be owned by the City of Omaha on what UNMC calls its new west campus along the Saddle Creek Road corridor near Farnam Street.

The City of Omaha has committed $30 million for that parking structure, likely to be built between two other facilities now under construction: UNMC’s six-story “CORE” research and administrative building; and the Catalyst entrepreneurial tech hub, which is a retrofitted old steel mill to be occupied by health-centric small businesses as well as UNeMed and UNeTech.

Public-private partnerships

Gold said the future housing ventures might be private-public partnerships, with UNMC teaming up with a private developer.

“We just continue to have unmet demand,” Gold said of housing for students, faculty, residents, nurses and more. “A lot of that has been met by the private sector, but the ability to provide affordable housing for students at a cost point where we know they can afford it is one of our priorities.”

Documents prepared for the NU Board of Regents show that the proposed UNMC residence hall project would charge market-rate monthly rents. UNMC or its designated partner would manage day-to-day operations and leasing for students.

Rent amounts won’t be determined until after the project is approved and farther along in planning, said Barnes.

For the last several years, private real estate developers have watched UNMC and midtown Omaha grow — and have responded by building and rehabbing a slew of market-rate rental properties for people wanting to live in the area. 

Entertainment and retail neighborhoods including the Blackstone District and Mutual of Omaha’s Midtown Crossing contain scores of newly constructed apartments, condos and other commercial activity that thrive largely because of the nearby UNMC — which shares about 10 square blocks with its primary clinical partner, Nebraska Medicine.

From downtown to midtown, private housing development continues. Many of the investors believe they and their projects will benefit also from the city’s planned streetcar route poised to run from downtown to near UNMC.

Student survey reflects demand

Gold said it was a Fall 2022 survey of the UNMC student body that helped spur its leaders to take a more active role in developing housing for the Omaha-based medical center community.

A “long waiting list” exists for the limited number of about 100 on-campus residences, UNMC said. Consider that about 3,400 students, residents, fellows and postdoctoral professionals are based at UNMC’s Omaha campus. 

Statewide, UNMC campuses hit record enrollment for 23 straight years. External funding for research, education and public service reached $250.5 million in fiscal year 2023.

Of those students who answered the survey, nearly 77% indicated that finding affordable housing near campus was difficult. 

Various sources offer students assistance in finding available housing in the area. But affordable off-site housing often comes with increased safety concerns, UNMC said.

New international students face additional challenges securing an apartment without local rental history or documentation of monthly income. And 89% of the survey-takers expected UNMC to support short-term housing for clinical rotations in some fashion.

UNMC officials cited the NU system’s five-year strategy released in 2022, which says, in part, that Nebraska will have more than 34,000 annual openings in high-skill, high-demand, high-wage jobs in years ahead across the state.

They said additional quality housing should help build a student and young professional population — thereby addressing the state’s “urgent and growing” talent needs. 

If all goes as planned, construction of UNMC’s housing project could start later this year, with projected occupancy in the summer of 2026.