Is Portland State University wasting 85 million dollars?

Recently, Willamette Week published an article on PSU’s (Portland State University) $85 million dollar construction project to demolish two older dormitory buildings Blackstone and Montgomery halls, and replace it with a brand new dormitory planned to house 550 beds)¹. The high price point here has sparked some scorn from the community, with Oregonian Reporter Shane Kavanaugh making light of the high price the University is paying per bed²--with similar criticisms echoed by pseudonymous posters on Twitter & the Discus chat forum visible from the Willamette Week website. So, is Portland State University really burning $85 million dollars on a thoughtless renovation, or is this a reasonable price for such a project?

Shane Kavanaugh's offending tweet

City of Portland Housing Project Data

A good point of reference is probably the City of Portland’s many housing projects³ as they’re easy to read and publicly accessible. I only went through about 15 projects, but I quickly found that if we’re focusing on the price-per-bed metric Shane Kavanaugh brought-up, there’s not much to be upset about. The estimated cost of around $154,545 per bed is lower than any of the 15 projects I bothered to check.

To calculate the net number of beds per project, I simply added the number of expected beds per unit (studios, single-resident occupancies, and 1-bedrooms all counted for 1 bed a piece, with 2-bedrooms having 2 beds, 3-bedrooms having 3 beds, etc.). Here’s the linked google sheet if anyone wants to scrutinize my methodology, but I reckon it’s fair: link to the google sheets table

Even if we’re concerned with the net estimated cost of $85 million, it’s not unheard of: the Waterleaf project completed in 2022 on the waterfront had an estimated cost of $80.8 million⁴, and Hazel Ying Lee Apartments in SE Portland completed in Spring 2024 had an estimated cost of $87 million⁵. In fact, compared to any of these projects, PSU is promising more dense housing than any of the other projects I checked, which makes sense, these are meant to be humble student dormitories for a public university.

It’s also worth noting that as stated on the publicly accessible PSU Board of Trustee’s meeting notes last January: PSU has relative old on-campus housing for a public university, and the last new on-campus housing building was completed all the way back in 2004⁶. Bush was still in office when PSU built their last dorm building.

Alright, I think that’s enough research to conclude that no, PSU is not wasting $85 million dollars. And as much as it’s fashionable to hate PSU in the current political climate⁷, it’s important to note PSU provides a real material good to our city, state & country in offering affordable college education to Oregonians (81% of its student body is in-state!)⁸. In that light, Portland State University ought to get something nice every once in awhile.

Location of PSU's planned new dorm building