We described 2024 as an “impactful year” for public-private partnerships (“P3s”) at Gilbane. In 2025, that energy translated into a more focused and strategic approach.
Across the higher education and social infrastructure landscape, public and private partners used public-private partnerships to move long-discussed, fast-tracked, or stalled projects from aspirational to executable – even amid volatile market conditions. In that context, Gilbane’s end-to-end expertise across the built environment, spanning the full Design–Build–Finance–Operate–Maintain spectrum, has been central to how we help clients structure and deliver essential real estate and infrastructure projects. We align development, construction, and operations to deliver better outcomes for our partners and lasting benefits for the community.
In 2025, public-private partnerships played a critical role in advancing higher education housing, health sciences campuses, and major social infrastructure projects across the United States. Gilbane supported more than $2.3 billion in P3 development, aligning financing, construction, and long-term operations to help public owners and universities deliver projects faster while managing risk. This year-in-review highlights the projects delivered, the communities served, and the P3 trends shaping what comes next.
2025 P3 at a Glance
In 2025, we continued to see what happens when a highly experienced and accountable partner aligns development, construction, and operations across public-private partnership projects. By bringing national strength, local commitment, and a flexible, cost-efficient approach to financing under a unified umbrella, we helped our partners move critical projects forward faster, more efficiently, and with lasting community value.
Across our Public-Private Partnership Team, we:
- Advanced a pipeline of more than $2.3 billion in P3 projects across higher education, health sciences, and social infrastructure.
- Helped universities respond to housing demand with 15,338 new and modernized student housing beds through initiatives at Purdue University Fort Wayne, the University of Idaho, the University of Rhode Island, Western Kentucky University, Eastern Michigan University, Ohlone College, and Palm Beach Atlantic University.
- Topped off construction on a new $300 million School of Medicine at the University of South Carolina Health Sciences Campus in Columbia.
- Continued work on the modernization of Amtrak’s William H. Gray III 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, one of the most visible social infrastructure partnerships in the country.
Behind each of those numbers is the same core idea: when P3s are structured well, they help campuses, public agencies, and communities get critical projects done faster, with shared risk, clear outcomes, and long-term value.
The P3 Landscape in 2025: Demand, Capital, and Social Infrastructure
The structural drivers behind public-private partnerships didn’t change this year; they became more pronounced.
Across higher education and public-sector institutions, leaders are navigating converging pressures: aging facilities, competitive enrollment environments, persistent housing shortages, and constrained capital plans. At the same time, expectations around student experience, community impact, sustainability, and long-term operational performance continue to rise.
For higher education and public owners, public-private partnerships increasingly function as a delivery tool to:
- Deliver faster, more affordable projects – right-sized to demand (including student housing, academic space, laboratories, and mixed-use facilities) on an accelerated timeline.
- Preserve balance sheets by using non-recourse, revenue-backed, and nonprofit 501(c)(3) conduit financing structures.
- Align incentives over the long term, pairing design and construction delivery with operations and maintenance commitments over decades.
In that environment, our P3 work this year centered around two themes:
- On-campus housing that goes beyond beds to support wellness, community, and recruitment.
- Health sciences and social infrastructure that require complex phasing, long-term operating plans, and multiple stakeholders.
The stories below bring those themes to life.
Campus & Health Sciences Public-Private Partnership Highlights
Purdue University Fort Wayne – A New On-Campus Community with Trace
At Purdue University Fort Wayne, Trace, a new 600-bed apartment-style residential community rising on the north side of campus, is being developed through a P3 with Gilbane. Construction at Trace moved through major milestones in 2025, achieving dry-in well ahead of schedule. As of December, the project is nearly 75% complete. Installation of FF&E is slated to start in July, and the team remains on schedule for a fall 2026 opening.
Behind the scenes, the P3 structure is what makes this possible. By partnering with Gilbane and using a nonprofit financing model, Purdue Fort Wayne is delivering a large, amenity-rich housing community while shifting significant development and cost risk off the university’s balance sheet.
University of Idaho – Tackling Renovation and New Construction Head-On
In 2025, the project moved from planning to visible progress. Through a developer-led partnership with Gilbane Development and Rocky Mountain Companies, site work and early renovation phases are underway, and the new South Hill apartments, serving graduate and family housing, are on track to open in August 2026. Meanwhile, renovations at Theophilus Tower and the Wallace Residence Center met their August 2025 milestones and are currently under budget, marking an important early win for the program.
For the University of Idaho, the structure allows the university to address a housing crunch on a larger scale while aligning delivery and long-term performance. Once renovations and new construction are complete, the program will deliver 2,503 total beds to support the university’s housing needs.
University of Rhode Island – Delivering 1,100 New Student Housing Beds
The University of Rhode Island (“URI”) has been experiencing record interest from prospective students. In October 2025, URI and Gilbane reached financial close on the university’s first large-scale housing P3, a landmark partnership that will deliver three new residence halls totaling over 1,100 beds on the Kingston campus.
Under the P3 structure, the project will be financed with tax-exempt debt with Gilbane developing, building, and managing the new communities on URI-owned land. Groundbreaking is expected in early 2026, with the first residence hall opening in fall 2027 and two additional buildings coming online in 2028.
For URI, this approach unlocks modernized housing capacity befitting a flagship institution on an accelerated timeline, while preserving borrowing capacity for other academic facility priorities. For students, it means more options to live and learn directly on campus.
Palm Beach Atlantic University – A 25-Story Student Housing Development in Downtown West Palm Beach
Palm Beach Atlantic University (“PBAU”) has seen applications and enrollment surge, and its downtown location has become a major draw. In 2025, PBA took key steps to address a familiar constraint: not enough beds. County commissioners approved revenue-backed bonds for a new residence hall; Gilbane and PBAU reached financial close on a $240 million P3; and in October, the partners broke ground on a 25-story, 319,000-square-foot mixed-use residential hall.
The project uses an off-balance-sheet structure, with tax-exempt bonds repaid from project revenues rather than taxpayer funds. For PBAU, this means adding nearly 1,000 beds, along with new dining and wellness spaces, in a constrained urban market while carefully managing institutional risk. An accompanying white paper, linked here, explores the financing approach in more detail.
University of South Carolina – A New Home for the School of Medicine
Not all of this year’s campus partnerships were about housing.
In early 2025, the University of South Carolina, Gilbane, and a team of design and engineering partners broke ground on a new home for the School of Medicine at the emerging Health Sciences Campus in the BullStreet District. By May, foundations were in place and construction began to rise above grade over the summer, with the cast-in-place concrete structure for the research wing completed in October, and the team celebrating a topping-out on the medical education wing in December.
Here again, the P3 model is doing important work behind the scenes. By partnering with Gilbane, USC is able to relocate the School of Medicine from a leased facility to a permanent, downtown health sciences campus on an accelerated timeline. In parallel, the team has moved from early stakeholder engagement into community impact and workforce development, hosting multiple outreach events and launching Gilbane’s Rising Contractor Program in Columbia, with its first cohort kicking off in early 2026.
Beyond the Campus: Social Infrastructure Public-Private Partnerships
Amtrak – Reimagining William H. Gray III 30th Street Station
In Philadelphia, the work underway at William H. Gray III 30th Street Station illustrates that public-private partnerships are not limited to new construction. They also play a critical role in stewarding and modernizing existing public assets that serve millions of passengers each year.
Amtrak’s third-busiest station is in the midst of a multi-phase modernization and renovation effort delivered through a long-term public-private partnership with Gilbane Building serving as the lead design-builder.
In 2025, the team advanced the interior fit-out of Amtrak’s new corporate office space, working through existing structural and M/E/P constraints toward occupancy in spring 2026. The team also completed two additional platform-access phases. Three of five platforms now feature upgraded elevators and escalators, restored historic finishes, and structural repairs that support the concourse above.
For Philadelphia and the surrounding region, the Gray 30th Street Station project is about more than a better commute; it is about how P3s can pair preservation with modernization in complex, heavily used public assets.
Industry Leadership & P3 Conversations
The projects above were only part of the story in 2025.
Over the year, members of our P3 team continued to speak at national conferences and industry forums focused on P3s, student housing, and social infrastructure.
The through-line in those conversations was consistent: P3s are evolving from “alternative delivery” to a core part of how many institutions plan, finance, and maintain their social infrastructure. Owners are asking more sophisticated questions about risk allocation, lifecycle performance, and community benefits. That’s a positive trend, and one we welcome.
What We’re Watching in 2026
As we plan with our partners for 2026 and the years ahead, several trends are shaping how public owners and institutions approach public-private partnerships:
1. The next wave of campus housing modernization – Using P3s to both add and refresh housing in ways that support recruitment, persistence, and student success.
2. Healthcare, life sciences, and clinical partnerships – Leveraging P3s to deliver complex, multi-phase health and life sciences ecosystems that blend academic, research, and clinical spaces.
3. Mixed-income and transit-oriented communities – Growing interest in neighborhood-scale P3s that combine housing with mobility, public space, and community services.
4. Lifecycle performance and long-term operations – Looking beyond initial delivery to how P3 structures can support long-term operations, maintenance, and resilience.
5. Creative capital solutions for social infrastructure assets – Continuing to tailor financing and funding approaches to align with client objectives.
Closing Thoughts: Partnering for What’s Next
Taken together, 2025 reinforced something we’ve believed for a long time: P3s are not a one-size-fits-all model. They are a set of tools that can be tailored to the needs of a campus, a community, or a civic institution, and are most effective when the public mission comes first.
We’re grateful for the trust our partners placed in us this year, from universities inviting us onto their campuses to agencies asking us to help reimagine critical public assets.
If your campus or community is weighing a P3, whether for housing, health sciences, civic facilities, or a mixed-income neighborhood, we’d welcome the chance to share more of what we’re learning on the ground and explore what the right path could look like for you in 2026.
