‘A big deal’: FAMU breaks ground on future 700-bed, state-of-the-art residence hall

Florida A&M University broke ground this week on what will be its new 700-bed student residence hall by fall 2025.

FAMU officials along with students and staff wore white hard hats and dug their shovels into the dirt of what was formerly the university’s gravel parking lot at Osceola Street and South Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

“This is another ‘great things’ moment at FAMU, heralding the era of a new state-of-the-art residence hall for our students,” FAMU President Larry Robinson told the Democrat.

The building will cost $97.5 million, which the university secured in February through a 30-year federal loan from the U.S. Department of Education’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Capital Financing Program, which funded FAMU Towers in 2018.

“When we think about student success, housing is an important aspect of that,” FAMU Board of Trustees Chair Kristin Harper said on the future building’s site Tuesday afternoon.

The student housing initiative is a part of FAMU’s overall effort to foster student success both academically and socially. The university’s on-campus bed count will increase to more than 3,000 beds as it strives toward having 4,000 on-campus beds in the next few years through its master plan.

“This is indeed a great day to expand our footprint, house more students and create more student success for the future generation of Rattlers that will be right here on the highest of seven hills,” Harper said.

Central Florida-based design and building company FINFROCK Construction, LLC is the housing project’s contractor, architect, structural engineer and general contractor and is also the same company that constructed the FAMU Towers buildings on campus.

Similar to FAMU Towers, the 700-bed residence hall will consist of two four-story buildings made up of 350-double occupancy bedrooms, each with a shared bathroom.

FINFROCK Construction President William Finfrock, who attended the university’s groundbreaking event Tuesday, says he values the opportunity that students have of living on campus and is excited to repeat the project at FAMU.

“FAMU is 100% right about freshmen coming in and getting culturized on campus to produce better results in the long run,” said Finfrock, who lived on campus when he went to college. “I’m really thrilled to pay this forward and to help more students get that experience.”

FAMU’s other student housing projects on the horizon include a 500-bed residence hall at the former Gibbs Hall and Paddyfote Complex sites on Wahnish Way and a mixed-use apartment complex with 800 beds at the former Palmetto North site.

“To me, living on campus is a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” FAMU Student Government Association Vice President Jeffrey Francis said. “There’s something to do here every single day, so having more on-campus housing allows more students to be a part of this exciting environment.”

Besides the FAMU community, Florida State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues also attended the Tuesday event to celebrate the university’s sitework construction.

“To have another residence hall on campus to provide opportunities for an additional 700 students to be here on campus is fitting,” Rodrigues said. “It’s a big deal.”

Here is a schedule of remaining steps in the 700-bed residence hall project while construction is underway:

• January 2025: Provide permanent electricity supply, building conditioning

• June 2025: Finalize closeout portion of construction, obtain Certificate of Occupancy

• July 2025: Complete residence hall

Contact Tarah Jean at [email protected] or follow her on X: @tarahjean_.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FAMU's new 700-bed residence hall construction is underway on campus