The West Virginia University Board of Governors on behalf of West Virginia University (“WVU”), WV Campus Housing, LLC (“WVCH”), Downtown Campus Parking Associates, LLC (“DCPA,”), and Ryan C. Lynch today (July 29) announced a comprehensive negotiated resolution of the litigation and related disputes concerning University Place and its project financing.
The settlement provides for dismissal with prejudice of the pending claims and counterclaims between the settling parties, mutual termination of the existing University Place ground lease and related subleases, retirement of the project financing through the agreed transaction, mutual releases, and a transition intended to preserve University Place as an integral part of the WVU student housing inventory.
Student residents of University Place, part of University Apartments, will see no changes to site operations as WVU assumes full ownership.
University Place and University Park grew from public-private partnership concepts that Mr. Lynch presented to WVU beginning in the early 2010s, after he assembled or placed under control more than 60 parcels from more than a dozen property owners, totaling more than 12 acres in strategic locations adjacent to WVU’s Downtown and Evansdale campuses.
Following negotiations with WVU, Mr. Lynch and his partners arranged private capital to develop and construct modern student housing, retail, amenity, and parking facilities in accordance with WVU’s programmatic requirements and desired specifications.
Those projects advanced objectives identified in WVU’s 2012 Student Housing Master Plan, which stated that its then existing housing inventory was limiting WVU’s ability to attract the best and brightest students. The plan, as implemented, utilized the public-private partnerships as a means to add capacity, improve the student experience, support recruitment and retention, and permit aging facilities to be renewed or replaced.
University Place opened in 2015 as WVU-managed, on-campus upper-class housing. The University Place parking garage opened later that year. In 2017, WVU, WVCH, and DCPA entered into amendments that, among other things, converted approximately 450 beds in University Place’s South Tower from upper-class apartments into the first-year residence hall now known as Seneca Hall.
Since that time, Seneca Hall and the University Place apartments have been popular and have benefited from very high occupancy rates. When announced, University Place also was expected to be an early and substantial component of the revitalization of Morgantown’s Sunnyside neighborhood. Together with continued public infrastructure work and substantial additional private investment, University Place has contributed to a Sunnyside that is safer, cleaner, more walkable, and more attractive for students, residents, businesses, and visitors.
The parties’ settlement does not amend, terminate, release, impair, or otherwise affect University Park at Evansdale, LLC, the University Park agreements, or Mr. Lynch’s ownership or economic interests in University Park.
WVU also recognizes the Lynch family’s longstanding support of the University, including the initial financing, development, and construction of the facility now known as Kendrick Family Ballpark, formerly Monongalia County Ballpark, within University Town Centre.
The settlement is a negotiated resolution of disputed claims and counterclaims. No court adjudicated the merits of either parties’ claims or counterclaims, and no party admits liability or wrongdoing.
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