George Mason University is pursuing plans to build a permanent campus in Loudoun, but supervisors warned it was too soon to declare victory in a process that has already been unfolding for nearly five years.
The first phase of campus construction, with a building estimated at 200,000 square feet to house 1,600 students, will hopefully be completed by 2014, according to a report by GMU consultants. The campus would eventually accommodate 10,000 students and require about 1 million square feet of space, the report said.
Board members, though, were concerned about who would pay for the project.
“[The] elephant in the room is finances,” said Jim Burton, I-Blue Ridge. “It is the key issue: Who’s going to pay for all this? We need to have more thought on the financial aspects of this.”
Jerry Coughter, the executive officer of Mason’s Sterling campus, said he’s struggled with the fact that there’s not enough in the report on financing. He did add that part of the omission was intentional, as the university doesn’t want to influence potential investors at this point.
“This is not going to be easy,” said Vice Chairman Susan Klimek Buckley, D-Sugarland Run. “If we’re looking for something easy, then this isn’t … it.”
Kelly Burk, D-Leesburg, though, said she had heard from a developer in Leesburg that there is “significant interest” from developers in regard to the project.
“This is going to have to be a partnership for this to work,” said Coughter.
Dana Kauffman, representing Northern Virginia Community College, which has partnerships with GMU and other universities in the commonwealth, cautioned supervisors that the project would take a significant amount of time to begin — the “soonest” being between five and seven years.
GMU had originally announced plans to add a 123-acre campus in the county in 2005, but supervisors rejected the proposal in 2006. The university currently leases a 20,000-square-foot office in Sterling.
The board is set to take up the matter again at its next business meeting May 19, and two public input sessions are scheduled for late May/early June.
