In addition to its offices at 1111 Franklin St. in downtown Oakland, the UC Office of the President has five satellite offices in and around Oakland, housing various university operations including systemwide human resources and benefits, the UC treasurer's office, the California Digital Library, and several special research and academic preparation programs. The consolidation of office leases allows the university to bring these functions under one roof in a cost-effective manner.
"UC continues to take a number of proactive steps to improve its operational efficiencies, maximize its resources and strategically position itself for long-term sustainability," said Joseph P. Mullinix, senior vice president for business and finance. "The contracts for all of our leased spaces in Oakland are expiring within the next several years, and it made good long-term financial and strategic sense to consider a consolidation into one lease.
"A consolidation enables us to reduce the costs of managing and maintaining multiple office satellites in the Oakland area. It will also bring our employees closer together, which will help improve work force efficiency and support a sense of internal community, which is difficult to achieve when our employees are spread across numerous locations."
University management will present to the UC Board of Regents in November a recommendation to enter into a lease in a new building to be developed at 1100 Broadway in downtown Oakland, adjacent to its current offices at 1111 Franklin St. The new 11-story building will provide approximately 190,000 square feet of space for downtown Oakland and is expected to include street-level retail space.
In addition, plans are underway to secure an additional 150 parking spaces along with this project. The new building will be designed to provide convenient access for employees between the two buildings and to Broadway and Franklin streets.
In addition to benefits of having its employees in a single location, the university's goal is to save approximately $2.5 million over the next 10 years in lease costs as contrasted with renewing existing leases for the same occupancy.
Oakland East End I, LLC, a partnership of Townsend Transactions of San Francisco (a subsidiary of Swinerton Inc.) and Eastmont Properties of Oakland, will be the developer of the proposed site. UCOP tentatively expects preparations for the new site to begin immediately, with occupancy in 2008.
In April 2005, UC published a request for proposals for the office space consolidation. In July, four proposals were selected for the final phase of the evaluation process. The original RFP is available at: www.ucop.edu/facil/resg/adsforbid.html.
The university has taken significant steps to reduce costs and increase efficiencies in many of its business and financial operations. These efforts include the development of a strategic procurement initiative, introducing a debt restructuring program, the streamlining of administrative services, and the implementation of standards for green building design and clean energy that substantially reduce long-term energy and building maintenance costs.
More about UC's business and financial operations is available at:
www.ucop.edu/ucophome/busfin
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