Hot Young Campus Seeks Experienced Developer

The University of California’s newest campus is looking for a partner to share the next six years. And UC Merced isn't a long walks on the beach type of campus—it's hoping to move quickly with a private sector guru ready to help it double in size.

UC Merced vice chancellor Dan Feitelberg tells us the campus opened on 104 acres in 2005 with 875 students. It quickly ballooned to 6,200 students, and now it’s out of space in nearly every category. (Don't let anyone tell you the freshman 15 is a myth.) It purchased 115 acres adjacent and is revving up Phase 2, part of its plan to reach 10,000 students by 2020. Dan tells us everyone loves Merced’s dense, mixed-use environment. To retain that, it hopes to build out the entire second phase—1.8M SF of development—in one fell master-planned swoop.

To accomplish that, Merced has issued an RFQ to find a development team that can bust out its creative chops and provide a cost-effective plan. That’ll certainly include sustainable design—UC Merced is the only campus in the country to earn LEED cert for every one of its buildings. Dan says he’s hoping to pick a partner (with help from development adviser JLL) by the end of 2015 so they can be in the ground by 2016. The scope is massive, adding 800k SF of academic space, 400k SF of student life facilities, and 650k SF of student housing and dining. (Word of warning though, you could add 10M SF of dining and the kids will still complain and drive to McDonald's.)