Business

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008

Biz Buzz: Cal Poly’s proposed high-tech park moving forward

With major design and construction questions addressed, project awaits board approval, $2.5 million in funding

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San Luis Obispo’s Omni Design Group and Rarig Construction Inc. have been approved by Cal Poly President Warren Baker and the California Central Coast Research Partnership to build the first project in a proposed high-technology park on the university campus.

Cal Poly has wanted for more than 10 years to build a high-tech park to encourage technological partnerships between private industry and university researchers. The park could also be a boon to the local economy, say campus administrators.

“Given the current state of economy, this kind of economic stimulus can be even more important to the region,” said Susan Opava, who helped spearhead the project as dean of research and graduate programs at Cal Poly.

“These are head-of-household, research-and-development jobs, many involving engineering, that would pay $75,000 and upwards.”

The project has already received enough letters of intent and oral commitments from high-tech companies to fill the new space, she added. She declined to say what companies have committed, but said 80 percent of them were already in the county.

The project, with $1.8 million in funding from the U. S. Economic Development Administration and $2 million in private donations in place, still needs the approval of the California State University

Board of Trustees, as well as about $2.5 million in still-to-be- approved university revenue bonds. The bonds would be eventually repaid out of the rent from anticipated tenants, said Mike Multari, assistant director of facilities planning at Cal Poly.

Depending on the success of this first building, more structures — each about 25,000 square feet—could be built over the next 15 years.

The first building is to be located on about 2.5 acres off Mount Bishop Road, near the dairy science complex on the northern side of Cal Poly and about a mile from Dexter Lawn, the center of the campus.

If the project gets its expected go-ahead from the Board of Trustees in September, the $4.5 million, 25,000-square-foot building by Rarig and Omni should be finished in 2010, Multari said.

Thomas G. Reay, senior vice president and director of architecture at Omni, called the project’s exterior design “neo-agrarian,” with sloped metal roofs and painted metal sheeting. At the same time, the glazing systems, sunshades, exterior steel stairs and steel guardrails provide a more high-technical, industrial feel. The building is also designed to be “sustainable” or “green” using a number of techniques, such as glazed windows, a highly reflective roof and sunshades to conserve energy, Reay added.

Reay, who designed 10 similar neo-agrarian-styled buildings in the recently completed Clarion Court Business Park off Santa Fe and Tank Farm roads in San Luis Obispo, has been Cal Poly’s architect of choice for a number of new or remodeled campus buildings, including the Village Market in Poly Canyon Village, the University Union Plaza, the Faculty Offices Building 47, a lab for the College of Architecture and Environmental Design, and the Rose Bowl Float lab.

Rarig Construction also has a track record with the university, having built a number of agricultural science buildings on the Cal Poly campus, including the poultry and dairy science buildings, the beef center and the animal nutrition center. “ We feel this is an excellent advancement for the Cal Poly campus,” said Reay. “It will be fruitful for the university and the San Luis Obispo community and we are delighted to be a part of it.”

—Melanie Cleveland

New designer hired at Madrone Landscapes

Madrone Landscapes, 8045 Morro Road in Atascadero, recently hired Daniel Mazawa as a landscape designer and estimator. Maz awa, a Cal Poly graduate, has knowledge of California ecosystems and also has interests in the “implementation of sustainable planning for urban forests to create cities with both beauty and community spirit,” said Rick Mathews, company president. He replaced Christine O’Hara, who has taken a position as an assistant professor within the Landscape Architecture Department at Cal Poly.

—Tonya Strickland

Honeyhuts hires new marketing director

Harvey’s Honeyhuts, a portable restroom business in Cambria, recently hired Amy Ridgway as its accounts manager and marketing coordinator. Ridgway, a 1998 Cal Poly communications graduate, has experience in the construction field, which will help expand Harvey’s Honeyhuts operations and service fields, said owner Jennifer Smith. The company is also celebrating 30 years of business on the Central Coast.

—Tonya Strickland