Join this dynamic discussion on the current landscape and future outlook for campus infrastructure and capital investment in higher education. The session will delve into the latest trends, opportunities, and challenges shaping the market, including how institutions are navigating financial constraints, evolving campus needs, and the demand for sustainable, resilient infrastructure. Explore innovative financing structures, partnership models, and strategies that are driving successful project delivery and long-term value creation for colleges and universities.

Jeff TurnerPresidentBrailsford & Dunlavey

The P3 housing market has matured significantly, yet there is still much to learn about what makes these partnerships successful and sustainable over the long term. Many P3 housing conversations focus on closing the deal. This session will focus on what comes after: the operational frameworks, governance structures, and relationship investments that determine whether a P3 becomes a one-time project or a permanent strategic asset for the university.

This session brings together a panel representing the developer, the program advisor, and the capital markets perspective to examine what it takes to build a P3 housing partnership that compounds value over time. Panelists will address deal structure, shared facilities management, financing evolution, and the institutional trust required to keep expanding the relationship. Attendees will leave with a frank, field-tested account of what worked, what required renegotiation, and how to structure a partnership built to last.

Check back often for updates.

In 2020, San Diego State University purchased the stadium site in San Diego's Mission Valley community, just three miles from its College Area campus. Since then, the university has completed site and infrastructure work, built an expansive river park and the new Snapdragon Stadium. It has also utilized a P3 delivery model to execute agreements with residential and affordable housing developers who have started construction on hundreds of residential units, with more projects in the queue. SDSU leadership will share how the project has continued to progress despite challenging market conditions, what has worked well and where they have had to pivot in order to maintain momentum. 

Adam ChristianSenior Director, Government & Public SectorErnst & Young Infrastructure Advisors, LLCModerator Agnes Wong NickersonVice President for Business and Financial Affairs and Chief Financial OfficerSan Diego State University Bob SchulzUniversity ArchitectSan Diego State University Gina JacobsAssociate Vice PresidentSan Diego State University

Learn more and submit your application today: P3 Higher Education Awards

Higher education institutions are facing mounting financial pressures, constrained debt capacity, and growing deferred maintenance liabilities. Yet many campuses are overlooking one of their greatest strategic resources: their existing real estate and infrastructure portfolio.

This session challenges attendees to rethink physical assets—not simply as operational necessities or cost centers, but as strategic resources that can strengthen institutional resilience. Before pursuing new funding sources or capital projects, institutions should first understand what they own, how each asset performs, what it costs, and how it contributes to the institution's long-term financial and mission objectives.

Featuring perspectives from higher education advisors, private asset managers, banking, and credit rating professionals, this panel will explore practical frameworks for evaluating campus assets, assessing financial and operational performance, understanding impacts on debt capacity and credit, and selecting the right implementation strategy. Whether the answer is improved internal management, targeted reinvestment, an operational partnership, monetization, or another transaction structure, the objective is the same: making informed, strategic decisions based on data rather than defaulting to the status quo.

Attendees will leave with a new framework for viewing campus assets as one of the institution's most powerful—and often most overlooked—strategic tools. 

Tom MulvihillManaging Director and Group Head of Infrastructure Finance and Public-Private PartnershipsKeyBanc Capital Markets David TeedManaging PartnerDiogenes Capital

Deferred maintenance is often framed as a budgeting trade-off—but in today’s campus environments, it is increasingly a strategic risk with compounding financial, operational, and reputational consequences. This session explores how prolonged underinvestment in critical campus assets—from parking facilities and central energy plants to student housing and dining infrastructure—can erode value, disrupt operations, and undermine institutions' long-term success.

Using real-world examples, we will examine how deferred maintenance manifests differently across asset classes. In parking systems, aging infrastructure can lead to safety concerns, reduced capacity, and unexpected capital outlays. In energy infrastructure, delayed upgrades to central plants and distribution networks can lead to inefficiencies, increased emissions, and increased resilience risks for institutions. Within student housing and dining, deferred reinvestment can directly impact student satisfaction, occupancy rates, and revenue streams.

Importantly, this discussion will move beyond problem identification to practical solutions. Attendees will explore leading practices for quantifying deferred maintenance risk, integrating lifecycle planning into P3 agreements, and aligning incentives between public and private stakeholders to ensure sustained asset performance.

Whether you are evaluating a potential partnership, managing an existing portfolio, or planning long-term capital investments, this session will provide a clearer understanding of the true cost of waiting—and actionable strategies to address it before it becomes a crisis.

Universities have long been engines of research and discovery — but increasingly, they are also becoming anchors for dynamic economic ecosystems that extend well beyond their campuses. Innovation zones represent a powerful evolution in how higher education institutions leverage public-private partnerships to create physical environments where industry, academia, and government converge to accelerate commercialization, workforce development, and regional growth.

This session brings together university leaders to explore how their institutions are designing, developing, and managing innovation zones — and the critical role P3 structures play in making them viable. Whether your institution is exploring its first industry partnership or looking to scale an existing innovation district, this session offers practical insights and peer perspectives on one of the most compelling P3 strategies in higher education today.

Adam AccolaExecutive DirectorDunn Economic Development Denise ChristensenDirector of Real Estate DevelopmentArizona State University Magesh Rajan, Ph.D., P.E., MBAVice President of Research and InnovationPrairie View A&M

Transforming the Campus Footprint

Public Private Partnerships have traditionally focused on delivering and funding student housing, amenities, and campus infrastructure with private development partners.   In today’s world where capital is more expensive, construction costs are escalating,  and colleges, universities, healthcare organizations, and other institutions have multiple priorities for their limited resources, Wexford Science + Technology and GMH Communities are building on their decades of experience as a trusted partner to these institutions and delivering real estate solutions tied to core university objectives like attracting and retaining faculty and student talent, expanding the campus life experience, and  building industry collaborations that drive new revenue and innovation opportunities.  The Wexford + GMH approach is rooted in trusted partnerships that develop high-performing facilities in dynamic mixed-use communities that attract partners and talent, elevate the campus environment, and drive strategic institutional outcomes.  Wexford + GMH bring a diverse real estate, community building, and capital toolkit to develop customized solutions for each partner, including research labs, offices, clinical facilities, housing, and amenities that drive a high quality of life. 

This panel will discuss how and why these partnerships have evolved and been successful over time.  The panel will draw from specific campus experiences to show how they achieve a broader range of strategic goals than traditional P3 projects, particularly in today’s institutional landscape.  And the discussion will highlight a variety of different partnership and capital structures to accomplish the strategic goals.   

Check back often for updates. 

Check back often for updates. 

The panel will examine how institutions can leverage shared market demand to address campus housing and infrastructure needs. Using the recently closed student housing project serving Morehouse and Spelman Colleges as a case study, panelists will explore how aggregating student demand enabled the Colleges to attract private-sector financing off-balance-sheet. The discussion will cover how the team evaluated development models, selected partners, and procured capital in an untested structure. The session will demonstrate how multi-institutional P3s maximize impact, unlock resources, and allow universities to execute ambitious, high-value projects that would be challenging to achieve independently.

Check back often for updates. 

University athletics facilities were once viewed primarily as places to gather on game day. Today, leading institutions are beginning to view them differently—as anchors for year-round destinations that integrate housing, hospitality, retail, entertainment, university uses, and public spaces.

This evolution reflects a broader shift in how universities think about their real estate. As institutions face competing capital demands, housing needs, aging infrastructure, and growing expectations from students and surrounding communities, strategically located university land and facilities are increasingly being viewed as platforms for broader investment and community development.

This forward-looking panel brings together the people who have been in the room on these projects to discuss what is driving the shift, what they have learned, and where the market is heading. Panelists will explore how athletics and other campus assets can anchor mixed-use districts; how residential and student-oriented uses can contribute to a year-round destination; how university, developer, and municipal interests are aligned; and how financing, governance, and public-private partnership structures can help institutions execute ambitious visions without relying solely on their balance sheets.

For universities considering what comes next, the question is no longer simply how to improve the stadium or athletics facility. It is how strategically located campus assets can become catalysts for broader institutional, economic, and community development—and what it will take to bring those opportunities to life.

Patrick ParsonsSenior Vice President, Public-Private PartnershipsSubtext Living

Transforming the Campus Footprint

Listen to employees’ actual experience transitioning from a university employee to a 3rd party operator and the importance of understanding the unique sensitivities of each employee. Retaining the operations team and ensuring their enthusiasm, interest and excitement is critical to a successful transition. The importance of open communication to university employees is critical to developing trust with the new 3rd party Operator. CenTrio’s VP of Corporate Development will moderate the session to facilitate hearing directly from CenTrio employees that transferred from the University to the 3rd Party Operator. The panel will include CenTrio’s HR Manager to round out the discussion from the 3rd Party Operator’s perspective.

Andres ArbizuVice President of Corporate DevelopmentCenTrioModerator John HouseDirector of OperationsSyracuse University Nathan PriorSenior Vice President of ConcessionsCenTrio Randy EarleLead Energy MechanicSyracuse University Tatjana ZunjicManager, Human ResourcesCenTrio