Dalhousie announces new residence building, opening fall 2028

Dalhousie University will construct a new housing complex next to the university’s arts centre on Henry Street, the university announced on Feb. 11.

The university’s first student housing development since 2014 will house 213 students. Construction is scheduled to begin in May, with a projected opening in fall 2028.

“The building is intended to appeal to upper-level and graduate students, offering proximity to campus, 12-month leases, which allow for year-round occupancy, and an alternative to dormitory-style housing,” said Janet Bryson, Dalhousie’s media relations director, in an email to the Dalhousie Gazette. 

The cost of the building’s construction is budgeted at $67.4 million. The project will be financed through debt funding that will be repaid through residence fees after the facility opens, according to Bryson. No operating and capital funds will be used for development. 

The addition of more than 200 student beds fulfills a student housing requirement outlined in the university’s bilateral agreement with the province, signed on April 1, 2024. 

Dalhousie risked losing over $20 million in provincial funding if it failed to file an application for development of a residence within the Halifax Regional Municipality by Feb. 15, 2025. 

“The Province is pleased to see Dalhousie University’s new housing development moving forward, marking important progress toward this commitment made in their bilateral agreement to increase student housing,” said Chloee Sampson, a spokesperson for Nova Scotia’s advanced education department. 

“This project is a positive step for both students and the broader housing market.”

Dalhousie’s Mini Residence buildings, which house 45 students, as well as buildings that contain offices for the Dalhousie Faculty Association and environmental health and safety, will be demolished to make way for the new residence.

David Westwood, president of the DFA, said the university informed the association last year that construction could take place on the site of their current office.

The faculty association’s offices will officially move to Robie Street starting Feb. 25, according to Westwood. 

The province’s threat to withhold funding from Dalhousie’s operating budget — which is needed to support academic programs — unless the university builds additional student housing is “bizarre,” according to Westwood. 

“Intruding on universities that are already hard up for money because of the lack of core funding from the province [and] the freezing of tuition, … seemed very out of step and inappropriate.” 

According to Westwood, Dalhousie doesn’t need more student housing. 

“This just seems like an absolutely terrible business decision, and our worry is this is going to hurt the university even more than it already is,” he says. “The construction will just further erode and undermine the academic mission. 

“It just defies the imagination why anybody would have thought this was a good idea.”