Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to correct the role of the Collegiate Housing Foundation. The Foundation will own WKU’s dorms. This story has also been updated with more specific phrasing on the dorm rate structure.
After six months of “dating” through a pre-development agreement with its public-private dorm partner, WKU President Timothy Caboni said it’s time for marriage.
WKU will partner with Gilbane for “the largest deal the university has ever done,” Caboni said. Through the partnership, WKU plans to open three new dorms over the next 4 years, including a nearly 1,000-bed Phase I project set to open in August of 2028.
The partnership is a big step in WKU’s dorm overhaul following the closure of Normal, Regents and Hilltopper halls.
Hilltopper Hall, which opened in 2018 for $40 million, shut its doors in 2024 and is set to be demolished following the spring semester. Normal and Regents halls opened in 2021 for $48 million and was abruptly closed in May 2025. The two dorms will cost $55 million to repair.
All three dorms underwent structural analyses in 2024 and 2025, respectively, which uncovered significant issues.
Gilbane is a Rhode Island-based international real estate company. Gilbane has public-private housing partnerships with 10 other universities. It will partner with the Collegiate Housing Foundation, Inwood Management, Capital Markets, CenTrio, Mackey Mitchell Architects, Structural Design Group, Broeren Russo Builders Inc., Element Design and Keer-Greulich Engineers Inc.
Keer-Greulich Engineers is the only collaborator based in Kentucky. The firm has worked on Downing Student Union, Houchens-Smith Stadium and the Soccer/Softball Complex.
WKU will turn over its dorms to the Collegiate Housing Foundation, an Alabama-based non-profit that is partnered with 53 universities across the United States. WKU will be the first university where all dorms are owned by the Collegiate Housing Foundation.
The Collegiate Housing Foundation will facilitate the demolition of the Den, Douglas Keen and Hugh Poland halls. Once those structures are demolished, Caboni said the goal is to break ground on the new dorm in August or September.
The foundations will also finance the construction of a “new approximately 1,000-bed” dorm hall and renovations to existing dorms with a bond no greater than $400 million, according to the agreement signed by the Board of Regents.
The bonds will be issued through Kentucky Bond Development Corporation, local legal counsel Mark Franklin said. The bonds were approved to be within Bowling Green’s jurisdiction by Mayor Todd Alcott at the City Commissioners meeting on Tuesday.
Senior Development Director at Gilbane, Jeffrey Resecto, said renovations to Southwest Hall will start May 11. Renovations will include new paint, carpeting and updated common areas.
Before the bonds can be negotiated, the dorm plan must be approved by the Capitol Projects and Bond Oversight Committee. Caboni said he will be traveling to Frankfort on Monday, April 27, to get approval.
Caboni said the partnership projects a rate of 3% annually as opposed to the projected 4% rate increase it has been operating under.
“What’s most important about all of this is it will transform the student experience and create something that today doesn’t exist on our campus,” Caboni said.
