The consortium, made up of Interserve, fund management firm Equitix and student accommodation specialist Campus Living Villages UK (CLV), will finance, build and operate the two new facilities for up to 50 years.
Interserve’s construction division will design and build the two new halls of residence, which will have up to 1,000 student bed spaces, plus associated academic and social college spaces on university land just to the south of the city.
Interserve will also design and build a university hub building on the same site, comprising student facilities and offices.
Facilities management services will be provided by CLV, while tenancy management will remain the responsibility of the university.
Interserve chief executive Debbie White said: “Interserve has an extensive portfolio of student accommodation projects, which demonstrates the strength and capability of our teams working in partnership with clients in the further education sector. We look forward to building on our 15-year relationship with Durham University by starting work on this exciting project, following the opening of the Interserve-built Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics in March.”
This may well be one of the last major construction projects to be taken on by Interserve, at least for the time being. In August the board announced that it no longer intended to pursue construction projects bigger than £10m in value, after difficulties making any money out of them.
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