UC Merced to host forum on 2020 Project, downtown plans

UC Merced leaders will host a forum Wednesday to provide the community with an update on the university’s plan for growth.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in the California room on the UC Merced campus. Free parking will be available in unmarked and unreserved spaces in the Lake Lot.

The forum will focus on the 2020 Project, which is Chancellor Dorothy Leland’s plan to double the size of the campus by building new facilities and to increase enrollment to 10,000 students.

Leland and other university leaders also will provide updates to the university facilities in downtown Merced. The university has two projects planned for downtown.

The first is a business incubator in the Parcade building at 18th and M streets. The center will provide small businesses in the area with resources, education and training. Incubator space also will be used for startup teams and entrepreneurs to meet and work on projects.

The incubator will be a partnership between the city and the university’s Office of Research and Economic Development. The UC Merced Small Business Development Center Regional Network is scheduled to move in next month after previously being located in Fresno.

The other project is the Downtown Center, planned to open in late 2017 at 18th and N streets. The building will house about 370 employees from the following university departments: Business and Administrative Services, the Office of Planning and Budget, the Office of Governmental and Community Relations, and the Office of University Communications.

This story was originally published July 22, 2015 at 9:28 AM with the headline "UC Merced to host forum on 2020 Project, downtown plans."