On Mar. 12, 2026, the UFV Properties Trust project received an update featuring Jackie Hogan, UFV vice president administration and one of the project’s board directors. She talked about UFV’s plans to develop more housing and a community hub within the Abbotsford campus.
The project, called Campus Communities, seeks to foster a more vibrant atmosphere for UFV’s students, employees, and faculty by establishing multipurpose spaces on campus surrounding grounds both in the cities of Abbotsford and Chilliwack. The project will see the development of habitational units and multi-use spaces that will provide long-term revenue for the institution.
The UFV Properties Trust was first introduced in 2023, with the goal of developing under-utilized lands owned by UFV, creating communities that are socially sustainable, and using Community Design Guidelines that offer a coherent sense of principles to abide by.
The developmental plan will transform land currently designated as UFV parking space into a liveable community area, which will include high priority amenity spaces such as community rooms and gardens, multi-use spaces, shared office workspaces, small gardening nodes, fitness facility, a book library, and more.
In a report covering November 2024 to September 2025, UFV surveyed students, faculty, alumni, and broader community members from Aug. 18 to Sept. 23, 2025, to analyze and take into consideration the communities’ priorities and expectations for the project. The survey gathered general information on demographic, transportation and access, and amenities and services.
They found that the most requested amenity was parking, followed by food and dining, then study and work spaces, with housing and services at the bottom. 68 per cent of those surveyed listed parking near campus as the main priority, emphasizing the need for sufficient parking space to be provided before starting operations on the current land being used for parking. The desire for accessible parking spaces outweighed the desire for housing.
Additionally, the survey revealed the need for more clarity about how the project will develop, as the participants were confused by how the Properties Trust works and what it will mean for UFV’s community. It also raised questions about how Indigenous communities are being meaningfully and respectfully involved.
Campus Communities listed the planned steps forward being environmental and rezoning assessments, applying the rezoning strategies and listening to further community feedback, preparing the land with a development firm, designing the new spaces to build, coordinating and completing the construction, and integrating new residents and community members.
Hogan mentioned that the current stage the project is at is the initial planning and risk mitigation, which is in line with the initial assessments needed prior to beginning any rezoning or land development.
In light of UFV’s $20 million deficit, UFV is looking at long-term solutions to provide them with sufficient funding to cover capital projects, scholarships, and research. UFV Today explained that an asset UFV has in their favour is land, and that they are proactively looking into leveraging that to turn it into recurring revenue in the future.
Campus Communities stated that the goal is to ensure a financial return on investment, the minimization of debt, matching costs to revenue by phasing the development, exploring diverse revenue and housing methods as well as rental buildings for recurring income, and that any resulting financial gain can benefit students.
Information on the budget planned for the development is still to be released, but the Government of British Columbia offers a glimpse into a fraction of the costs for such a development, as they revealed they provided UFV with $70.3 million Canadian dollars to aid with the construction of the new student housing facilities, stated to cost $82.3 million. This means approximately 85 per cent of the cost of the brand new student housing was covered by the provincial government.
Dr. James Mandigo, UFV’s president and vice-chancellor, mentioned during January’s Budget Town Hall that the B.C. government is not going to increase funding for post-secondary education, and is instead looking for areas where costs can be reduced.
“They were very clear in their communication to the sector through the sustainability review that’s ongoing right now that there is no new money in the system.”
Hogan mentioned that UFV is looking to be proactive and not rely on government funding to proceed with the operation whose end goal is to ultimately provide UFV with more recurring revenue.
“What we have is land, and it comes with the added benefit of building community near campus. We are trying to be proactive, instead of just waiting for government funding to come our way.”
