Arizona IDA Closes $270 Million Financing for the University of Arizona’s New Catalina Residence Hall

The University of Arizona’s largest housing project in years has both its money and its groundbreaking. In early July the Arizona Industrial Development Authority closed roughly $270 million in Student Housing Revenue Bonds to finance a new on-campus community of about 1,368 beds, and on July 14 the university broke ground on the building, now named The Catalina.

The structure is a public-private partnership. The nonprofit Collegiate Housing Foundation is the borrower and owner (its 73rd project nationally), Mortenson is the developer and design-builder, Gensler is the architect, and RBC Capital Markets underwrote the bonds. The university is the ground lessor. Because the bonds are repaid from housing revenue rather than university debt capacity, the Arizona IDA called the closing a landmark financing that gives the university a clear path to future ownership.

The Catalina will rise nine stories at the northwest corner of Speedway Boulevard and Campbell Avenue on roughly three acres. Real Estate Daily News reported total development cost of up to $250 million with about $145 million in hard construction cost. The design was revised from an earlier 19-story concept down to nine stories while adding about 100 beds, and it includes an in-hall dining facility, student support space, and connections to the streetcar and the Warren Avenue underpass. Occupancy is targeted for fall 2028 to support the university’s expectation that first-year students live on campus. University President Suresh Garimella noted that students who live on campus graduate in four years at a rate about 50 percent higher than those who do not.

Why it matters to JFN

Suite-style halls with private bathrooms and an in-house dining operation carry some of the densest plumbing programs in the built environment: thousands of fixtures, stacked wet walls repeated floor after floor, domestic water booster systems, and a commercial kitchen with its own grease, gas, and drainage requirements. We have built student housing across Arizona for more than two decades, and a project of this scale in Tucson is exactly the kind of work our crews are organized around. It is also a strong signal that on-campus housing remains a funded priority for Arizona’s universities.

Sources: Arizona IDA, July 7, 2026; University of Arizona News, July 14, 2026; Real Estate Daily News, July 23, 2026