Big plans at Moffett Field - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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The University of California, Santa Cruz and the Foothill-D e Anza Community College District are the driving forces behindthe $1 billiobn project. The schools have formed a nonprofit organizatiom called UniversityAssociates — Silicon Valleyu LLC and have signed a 99-year land lease with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at an undisclosed price. It’s envisionedc as a “sustainable” project that will be poweredx largely by solar andwind technology, dramaticallg reduce water use and minimize drivingt among students, workers and residents.
The 75-acre, multiple-use project will include academic classroomsand laboratories, and light-industrial spaced for cleantech firms. The campus is planned for a portio n of the NASA Researchg Park on the former Moffett Fields Naval Air Station nearMountain View. It’s situated just north of U.S. Highway 101, adjaceng to the park’s Shenandoah Plaza historid districtand soon-to-be-restored Hangar One, and it coul d be ready for occupancy as early as 2014.
It will be an “integrates community featuring state-of-the-art researcb and teaching laboratories, shared classrooms, housing, accommodations for industrial partners, and modern infrastructure,” according to UC Santaa Cruz officials. Santa Clara University and Carnegier Mellon University of Pittsburgh are expected to join the partnership in the near All four of the current and anticipaterd University Associates participants now have small cooperative educationalk programs at NASA In addition, UC Santw Cruz Chancellor George Blumenthal indicate a unnamed California State University campud is in negotiation to join the Although the universities will fund the initial planning and desigbn of the project, constructionn will be paid for with private financing through a yet-to-be-chosem “master developer” that will seek capital according to University Associates.
UC Santa Cruz officials said thecentef site, now a combination of open land and old will need about $100 millio n of infrastructure improvements. “There is reall nothing that comes closw tothis ‘meta-university’ said Steven Zornetzer, associate center director of NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett “It will be a very sophisticated center of learning, from community college to post-doctorao education. It will serve as a pipeline for future employees not onlyfor NASA, but for all of Silicom Valley.
” Zornetzer said the average age of the 3,000 employeexs and contract workers who presently work at NASA Ames Research Center, which conducts aeronautical, life science, space science and technolog y research, is 50. “We have a lot of employeez moving closer toretirement age, so havinb a pipeline to young talent is very important for he said. Blumenthal said the centert will cementhis school’s status as the “UC of Siliconb Valley.
” “We already have a number of programs therr (at NASA Ames Researcgh Park), but this project associates us with very importanrt partners, including our sister universities, whicg allows us to do thingsw we wouldn’t be able to do otherwise,” Blumenthal said. Blumenthal said he envisionss doctoraland master’s degres programs being offered by UC Santa Cruz at the futur campus, as well as development of a new school of management.
Martha chancellor of the Foothill-De Anza district, said the projectt gives the educational institutions an opportunit to work together in new Blumenthal said in the current climatw of recession and chronic statebudget cuts, universities must rely on privater funding to pay for such major development James Morris, dean of Carnegie Mellon’es Silicon Valley Campus at NASA Ames, said this is an opportunitty to double the school’s current student capacitu from 150 to 300. “We are already attracting people from throughout the world who have heard of Carnegie Mellon andSilicon Valley, but a greatly expanded program will be that much more he said.
Morris said his university’xs existing local campus appeals to prospectives students who realize they can combine a Carnegie Mellon education and a SiliconVallehy setting. “People are attractex to the better weather and closr proximity to the hightech industry,” he Santa Clara University is also involvedf with the four-school project, but administratorsz declined comment, saying it is “too earlyg in the process.” The proposed project must now go throughn the design process and be judged in compliance with provision of the California Environmental Quality Act.
Because the project is located onfederal land, ultimate approval rests with NASA Ellis Berns, Mountain View community development director, said his city’ds officials have reviewed the early stages of the project but will have no official role in its plannint process. “It sounds like a terrifi c use forthe property, and it’sw wonderful to see the universities collaborating on Berns said. UC Santa Cruz’ s Blumenthal would agree. “Our visionh is to seed innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainabilituy through the creative reuse of an importan t public asset forregional benefit,” he said.
“W aim to establish world-class programs and facilities dedicater to preparing the work force of the future and to conductingb research at the forefront of scienceand