After several unsuccessful attempts to develop apartment-style student housing using traditional delivery strategies, the University of Miami turned to the private sector for assistance. This presentation will review the unsuccessful attempts to develop the project and the successful public/private approach that achieved consensus among the commercially-oriented board of trustees, the provincial interests of Coral Gables, and the lofty ambitions of the university. There will be detailed discussion on the financial drivers that differentiate various partnership structures and benchmarking trends of on-campus student housing developed in partnership with the private sector.