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Ceremony Marks Milestone for Aggie Square

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Rendering shows people walking around Aggie Square.
An artist鈥檚 rendering of Aggie Square, as seen from Stockton Boulevard, where 嘿嘿视频鈥 Sacramento campus will open up to the community. Straight ahead: the Lifelong Learning Building and Innovation Hall. (Courtesy of ZGF)

The University of California, Davis, the city of Sacramento and project developer Wexford Science and Technology today (Feb. 16) celebrated a milestone in the university鈥檚 Aggie Square project with a ceremonial groundbreaking.

Located on 嘿嘿视频鈥 Sacramento campus, Aggie Square is an innovation hub that brings together university research and teaching, industry and the community to create opportunities for communities across the region. It will be home to research programs, private industry partners, classrooms, student housing, and public-facing programs that engage local communities and entrepreneurs.

鈥淎ggie Square is the ultimate 鈥榠nnovation ecosystem.鈥 It鈥檚 part laboratory, classroom, workplace, business incubator and community gathering place,鈥 said Gary S. May, 嘿嘿视频 chancellor.We鈥檙e building a place where companies, researchers, students, faculty and community advocates work side by side, where cutting-edge 嘿嘿视频 research powers innovative companies, and where 嘿嘿视频 provides training for up-and-coming industries and for residents who live in surrounding neighborhoods.鈥

Community partner

Aggie Square leverages 嘿嘿视频鈥 strengths in life sciences, technology, engineering, food, health and social impact, driven by talented faculty, undergraduate and graduate students and staff, aligned with the university鈥檚 public service mission and desire to be a partner in the community.

鈥淚鈥檓 proud that our city has partnered with both 嘿嘿视频 and our community to make Aggie Square a reality,鈥 said Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg.  鈥淲e are creating an economic center with thousands of new jobs, and the people in our neighborhoods will be the primary beneficiaries. Aggie Square stands as an example of what is possible.鈥

Construction on Phase 1 of the project will begin this spring. This phase includes two buildings designed for science, technology and engineering and a Lifelong Learning Building dedicated to classrooms and public programs.

鈥楧ynamic, inclusive鈥

Wexford values our partnership and shared vision with 嘿嘿视频 to create and bring to life this once-in-a-generation opportunity on the Sacramento campus,鈥 said James Berens, chairman and president, Wexford Science & Technology.Aggie Square will be a dynamic, inclusive, collaborative and impactful ecosystem merging the university, corporates, startups, the city and its citizens into an environment that is unique in character and integrated into the fabric of the community and regional innovation ecosystem. We believe the elements that are in place for Aggie Square will create a powerful economic development engine for the region and will lead to equitable opportunities for all.鈥

Aggie Square will address the need for additional research space in Sacramento, especially 鈥渨et lab鈥 space for both academic and industrial use. It will help attract both government and private research funding to Sacramento and 嘿嘿视频.

An economic impact report completed in 2020 estimated that Aggie Square would add nearly $5 billion a year to the economy of the Sacramento region and generate 25,000 jobs. The construction phase will deliver an additional $2.6 billion in one-off economic impact and 15,000 job-years.

Economic development

鈥淭he Aggie Square project is a significant milestone for economic development in the Sacramento region, which will continue to propel the state capital of California into a world-class science community,鈥 Greater Sacramento Economic Council President and CEO Barry Broome said. 鈥満俸偈悠碘 Aggie Square mixed-used innovation district will have 1 million square feet of research, wet labs, commercial space and will help continue our efforts recruiting the best and brightest life science companies. We want to thank 嘿嘿视频 Chancellor Gary May and Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg for their leadership to make this project happen, which will change the trajectory of our community forever.鈥

Those jobs will benefit the local community. In April 2021, 嘿嘿视频, Wexford and the city of Sacramento agreed on a based on three years of input from local residents. The agreement directs $50 million toward affordable housing in the neighborhood, thousands of jobs in construction and in the completed project, improvements to the Broadway and Stockton Boulevard corridors, and annual funding for community projects.

Quarter at Aggie Square

嘿嘿视频 has already launched an undergraduate program for the project, Quarter at Aggie Square. Leveraging its proximity to 嘿嘿视频 Health, the state capital and community organizations, this immersive program addresses topics of societal concern from multidisciplinary perspectives. The program began in fall 2020 offering 鈥渆xperiences鈥 in health and educational equity and biomedical engineering. For winter quarter 2022, the class focuses on immigrants, refugees and human rights, combining campus expertise in international migration and California government with hands-on experience working with immigrant and refugee communities. Read more: Learning at the Heart of the Issues.

In January 2020, Aggie Square announced that the Alice Waters Institute for Edible Education would be the first tenant. Building on Waters鈥 Edible Schoolyard Project and 嘿嘿视频鈥 depth of expertise in food, nutrition and agriculture, the institute will bring together experts from across disciplines such as education, health care, agriculture, policy and business to create new solutions for healthy, sustainable and equitable food systems.

Media Resources

Media Contact:

  • Melissa Blouin, News and Media Relations, 530-564-2698, mlblouin@ucdavis.edu

 

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