Fairmont State University
Student Housing Market Study
In the
spring of 2000, officials at Fairmont State
University (formerly Fairmont State College)
contacted Brailsford & Dunlavey after
recognizing the need to cultivate the
University's residential program to meet the
current demand of campus housing and to
encourage on-campus living by improving the
quality of life and satisfying student needs.
The University was unable to properly house
students who desired or required on-campus
housing and had suffered a recent decline in
the student perception of the quality of campus
life. Furthermore, the University wanted to
determine if privatized housing would help it
meet key goals. Fairmont State determined that
B&D should provide strategic
recommendations to help the University to meet
its housing needs over the next decade.
B&D
performed a thorough preliminary assessment and
market analysis that included tasks such as a
written survey, focus groups, and
identification of the target market by
researching the University's demographics.
B&D concluded that there was a much higher
demand for on-campus housing than the
University previously believed existed.
Therefore, B&D developed a preliminary
financial model that demonstrated the
University's ability to undertake a new housing
project to meet increased demand to meet
current housing trends and needs, and to carry
Fairmont State into the 21st century. This
model also was flexible enough to take into
account potential growth and market demand
changes.