UC Merced cuts list for development team to three

UC Merced announced Tuesday it has further whittled down its list of potential development teams to help design the university’s next phase of growth as it attempts to reach 10,000 students by 2020.

Enrollment has grown from 875 students in 2005, the university’s first year, to more than 6,250 students this year.

The latest round of development-team decisions reduced the list from six potential teams to three. Those three teams submitted detailed proposals for the next major phase of campus construction, scheduled to begin in 2016.

The final three teams for the 2020 Project are EP2 Developers, E3 2020 and Merced Campus Collaborative. Each group includes a lead contractor, equity partners, planners and architects organized as a single team. The project is expected to span five years and add more than 1 million square feet of floor space to the campus.

The university also announced this week it has received a record number of applications from freshman and transfer students, but enrollment growth will continue to be measured because the campus is near capacity. From 2013 to 2014, enrollment grew by fewer than 75 students.

The final building in the university’s first phase of construction is slated to open in 2016. Charles Nies, interim vice chancellor for student affairs, said the next phase will play a large role in reaching the university’s enrollment goal.

“Our hope is to find some opportunities to build more space on campus and to maximize the space that we have,” Nies said.

The three development teams still on the list were chosen through a request-for-qualifications process that closed in October. University representatives evaluated responses from all six teams based on criteria laid out in the request.

The three teams remaining will now enter the proposal phase, which asks for detailed proposals for the design and development of classrooms, offices, laboratories and recreational facilities, as well as student housing and services that can accommodate 10,000 students by the 2020-21 school year. Those proposals are expected to be received later this year.

From its inception, the Merced campus was meant to expand access to the UC system within the San Joaquin Valley and across the state. The university regularly reports that students are split almost evenly between the Central Valley, Southern California, and the Central Coast and Bay Area.

The campus led the UC system in applicants for the fall who come from low-income households (59 percent) and whose parents haven’t received a four-year degree (65 percent).

The 2020 Project is supposed to be a mixed-use development that will increase capacity quickly while being economical. Construction will take place on a 219-acre site that includes the current campus and 136 acres of adjacent, undeveloped land.

“We are very pleased by the qualifications and strength of the teams that expressed interest in participating in the (request for proposal) process,” Daniel Feitelberg, vice chancellor for planning and budget, said in a press release. “While much more work lies ahead, we are eager to begin the RFP phase this spring.”

This story was originally published January 13, 2015 at 1:02 PM with the headline "UC Merced cuts list for development team to three."