UC Merced receives approval to build Downtown Center

UC Merced officials received the go-ahead to build the $45 million Downtown Center, but officials say the project won’t make sense if the city doesn’t quickly agree to provide basic utilities for future campus growth.

The UC Board of Regents on Thursday approved the construction of the Downtown Center, UC Merced officials announced in a news release. Construction is expected to begin in summer 2016, and the center is scheduled to open in fall 2017.

“While the regents’ approval of the Downtown Center is good news, the campus still has significant other hurdles to overcome before we break ground on construction,” said Michael Reese, UC Merced’s vice chancellor for business and administrative services, in a statement. “Among them is assurance that the city of Merced will provide the necessary city services for expansion of the campus.”

The Downtown Center project is integral to UC Merced’s 2020 Project, Reese said. University and city leaders expect the new center to boost the downtown economy and connect the campus and community. The 2020 Project is designed to expand the current campus to accommodate 10,000 students by 2020, which can’t happen without additional utilities to support growth.

University and city officials have worked on an agreement for the last 18 months to ensure the city will provide water and sewage for the university’s planned growth. Reese said it’s important to lock down that agreement before moving forward with developers on the Downtown Center.

“If for some reason we can’t move to phase two for the campus center, there’s really no reason to have the Downtown Center,” he said.

Reese said he is “optimistic” that the university and city will reach an agreement, but it must come quickly because “developers will be looking for a signal from us and the city that we can resolve this.”

John Bramble, Merced’s city manager, said Monday he is confident the agreement will be complete within 30 days. He said the city was happy to hear the regents approved the Downtown Center.

“We’re excited that they’re going to move forward with the Downtown Center,” he said.

The building will be 67,400 square feet and will be located at 18th and N streets on a piece of land the university bought for $630,000 last year. The building will house about 370 employees from various university departments.

Reese said the unconventional process has its benefits and poses risks. The bidders are very competitive but nervous about political risks, he said. “That’s why the regents’ approval is so important,” he said. “And for the city agreement, the fact that we don’t have it yet, it potentially could make the teams more nervous.”

The Board of Regents spent hours discussing the 2020 Project in a meeting last week. Reese said it was a phase in which UC Merced helped the regents understand the project and growth plan.

The plan will return to the Board of Regents in September, and in November the regents will take action.

“The meeting (last week) was very encouraging,” Reese said. “I think we made a lot of progress in helping them understand the plan. What they clearly signaled was their support for growth of the Merced campus.”

This story was originally published July 27, 2015 at 5:52 PM with the headline "UC Merced receives approval to build Downtown Center."