22 August 2017
Cairo-based contractor Orascom Construction has said that the Weitz Company, its design-build contracting business based in Iowa in the United States, has completed a project to build the biggest student housing complex in the country.

The Park West project contains 2.2 million square feet of buildings on a 50 acre plot in College Station, Texas, on the campus of Texas A&M University.

The campus was built under a public-private partnership deal between Weitz, the university and Texas-based developer Servitas.

The campus contains 3,406 units and was completed in less than two years, with work starting in August 2015 and the homes being handed over to Servitas last month. The developer will now operate the properties under a 30-year deal with the university.

“Most projects of this size have a much longer duration. To finish in two years, we engaged our in-house experts and subcontractor partners early in the design-build process and also implemented lean construction practices, keeping all parties fully committed throughout the build process,” said The Weitz Company vice-president Shane Bauer.

At its peak, there were upwards of 1,000 construction workers onsite every day, the company said.

Orascom Construction bought out Weitz in 2012, after the two firms began discussions about working on a major fertilizer plant in Iowa for Orascom’s former parent company.

Orascom Construction, whose shares are listed on both the Egyptian Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Dubai, said at the end of March that just over 25 percent of its current backlog of $5.1 billion is for work being carried out in the US.

Student housing is also becoming a bigger market for investment in the Middle East.

GSA Group, a Dubai-based student property specialist, opened the first purpose-built student accommodation scheme at Dubai International Academic City in 2016, and sold it to ENBD REIT in a $15 million deal in May this year.

The company’s chairman, Nicholas Porter, has also said that it has a strategic plan to grow in Dubai and across the United Arab Emirates, and that it is looking for opportunities to develop and operate new sites to serve local universities.

© Zawya 2017