Livermore Valley Open Campus

Developers pitch ideas for 78 acres of Livermore Valley Open Campus
May 22, 2013
Blanca Torres
San Francisco Business Times

Nineteen entities responded to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s call for ideas on how to develop 78 acres of land at the lab.

The land is part of the LLNL and Sandia National Laboratories' Livermore Valley Open Campus project to facilitate businesses to make use of the labs’ research and technology.

Last month, LLNL issued a request for information from developers interested in building facilities such as office and lab space at the Open Campus.

“It’s taken some time, but we’re really exicted that the Department of Energy approved our going forward to find developers,” said Buck Koonce, a senior University of California adviser at LLNL working on the Open Campus project.

Respondents to the RFI were contractors, developers and consulants including Rudolf & Sletten Inc., Robinson Mills & Williams Inc., HDR Architecture, BKF Engineers and OLMM Consulting Engineers. See the full list here.

The entire Open Campus will include 110 acres of which LLNL controls 78. The total build out of the Open Campus could take up to 30 years and include up to 3 million square feet of space.

Koonce said he expects LLNL to start with an initial phase of three or four buildings, but exactly how the campus will materialize is yet to be determined. The lab has built infrastructure and hired FLAD Architects to design a master plan for the campus, but will rely on private developers for the individual buildings.

The RFI said the lab would like see facilities such as a high performance computing center, office buildings, educational centers, and a research collaboration center.

Koonce said the lab will review all the responses and then determine how to proceed. One option is put out a request for proposals and select projects from that pool to get construction in 2014.

“We’ve done the upfront work to make it easier for a developer to come and put in their projects,” he said. “We’ve been working with DOE for the development of the projects, so we don’t expect years of delay. The DOE has approved (the Open Campus) and is encouraging us to make their land available. We’re excited for the new Open Campus to be realized.”

May 23, 2013 at 6:10 AM

Anonymous said...

May 23, 2013 at 6:10 AM

But they have no money and yet they do this and the NEO was full yesterday and they are hiring summer students. Amazing

May 23, 2013 at 6:34 AM