Infra Insight Blog

The Regents of the University of California announced on June 15, 2016 that it has selected Plenary Properties Merced as the successful proposer for the UC Merced 2020 Project.

We are impressed by the creativity, efficiency and aesthetic qualities evident throughout the winning proposal, said UC Merced Chancellor Dorothy Leland.  Plenary Properties Merced has produced a compact, environmentally sensitive design that blends beautifully with our existing campus, facilitates our multi-disciplinary teaching and research methods, and provides flexibility for future changes in building usage.  Most important, it’s a cost-effective way of building out our campus.

The Plenary Properties Merced team includes Plenary Group, as sole equity member, Webcor Builders, as lead contractor, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Inc., as lead campus planner, and Johnson Controls Inc., as lead operations and maintenance firm.  

The project is the first higher education availability payment P3 project to be awarded in the United States, and may well serve as a template for future higher education capital projects, both within the UC system and nationally, if successfully completed.  UC Merced, the youngest campus in our system, is poised to become a model for our other campuses as we look for the most efficient ways to construct, operate and maintain facilities that enable us to pursue our teaching, research and public service missions, said UC President Janet Napolitano.

The project involves the design, construction, financing, operation and maintenance of a broad mix of academic, residential, student life, and recreational facilities at the University of California’s youngest Merced campus for a 39-year contract term.  The project will nearly double the physical capacity of the campus and is intended to support projected enrollment growth from 6,700 current students to 10,000 students within five to seven years.

The UC Board of Regents will be asked to approve the project’s conceptual design and related external financing in July, and the project is anticipated to reach commercial and financial close in August.  Delivery of the first set of facilities is scheduled for 2018, and the full project is scheduled to be delivered by 2020.

Click here for more information about the UC Merced 2020 Project.