PrototypeA working model for review. Figures use a fictitious example trust.
Turn university land into long-term university revenue without giving up the land. List the parcels the trust plans to release, choose how each one is leased, and the planner shows what the university receives and when: upfront lease payments, ground rent for the life of the lease, the bridge funding the trust needs to service land first, and what the distributions would support if placed in the endowment. It compares prepaid leases, annual ground rent, participating rent, the trust building and owning the housing itself, and freehold sale side by side, so the board can weigh cash now against income and control later.
Land endowment plan
Campus land plan
How the planner works
Work through it in order
Trust and settings. Name the trust, set the start date, the discount rate, and how fast land values and rents grow.
Parcels. One entry per parcel: its use, size, homes, land value today, servicing cost, release year, and structure. For trust-built housing, choose whether the equity comes from the trust or a university advance.
Deal terms and policy. Preset to common practice for university land trusts. Adjust the lease terms, the trust's costs, and how much it distributes to the university.
Results. Read the cash flow, the parcel schedule, the comparison of lease structures, and the checks.
Key terms
Prepaid leasehold. The developer pays the full value of a 99-year lease up front. The land returns to the university when the lease ends.
Annual ground rent. The developer pays rent every year, set as a share of land value and rising with inflation.
Participating ground rent. A lower base rent plus a share of the development's gross revenue.
Trust develops and holds. The trust builds and owns rental housing on the land, with a mortgage and equity from its own cash or a university advance. It keeps all the income and all the risk.
Freehold sale. The land is sold outright. Most cash up front, but the university gives it up permanently.
Net present value (NPV). All future cash to the university, in today's dollars, at the discount rate.
Endowment-equivalent income. What the distributions would support each year if the university placed them in its endowment.
Privacy
Everything you enter stays in this browser on this device unless you save a planner file. Nothing is sent to Dewling Strategies.
Campus land endowment plan
1. Trust and settings
Land values and servicing costs are in today's dollars. The planner grows them to the year each parcel is released.
2. Parcels
One entry per development parcel. Open a parcel to enter its details; results update as you type.
3. Deal terms and policy
Preset to common practice. Every setting applies to all parcels using that structure.
Show the deal terms and policy
Lease terms
Trust-built housing
Trust operations and funding
Distribution policy
4. The plan at a glance
Add at least one parcel with a land value in section 2 to see results here.
Test the assumptions
Drag a slider to see how the plan responds. Sliders change the same settings as sections 1 and 3, and everything on the page updates. The line below the sliders shows the change from where you started.
What the plan is saying
5. Cash flow to the university
Point to any year for the figures.
6. Parcel schedule
Net present value is each parcel's cash to the trust, less servicing, in today's dollars. Trust-built parcels also count their equity, net income after debt service, and mortgage payments. The best lease compares the three ground leases, and trust-built housing where you have chosen it; a sale is left out because it gives up the land.
7. Lease structures compared
Your plan beside five alternatives that put every parcel on the same structure. Trust-built housing applies only to parcels with homes; the others stay on annual ground rent in that column. The chart shows cumulative distributions to the university. Trust operating costs continue under every structure, so a plan with no ongoing ground rent slowly draws the trust down after the last payment.
8. Year by year
Trust cash flow, distributions, and what the distributions would support in the endowment.
9. Plan checks
On track meets good practice, Watch needs attention, and Action should be fixed before the plan goes to the board.
Save and share
Your work saves in this browser on this device. Use Save planner file to keep a copy you can open anywhere or share with a colleague.
Planning a land trust or a parcel release?
Greg Dewling, founder of Dewling Strategies, was the inaugural President and CEO of the University of Alberta Properties Trust and led its first campus land lease deals from parcel planning to signed agreements. Email greg@dewlingstrategies.ca or call 780-907-4542.
