San Fernando Valley : BUILD OUT

Three years after an aborted deal left them in the red, cash-hungry officials at Cal State Northridge plan to launch a new campaign to find private developers for the school’s little-used, 65-acre North Campus area.

The university today will issue a formal request for proposals for retail, office or residential projects that could be built under a long-term lease of the former Devonshire Downs racetrack. The deadline for proposals is Nov. 3.

In the next several days, CSUN officials plan to mail their solicitation to more than 120 companies, about half of which had previously expressed interest in the property. Campus officials said they expect to receive as many as several dozen responses.

“We have had enough unsolicited interest in this land for me to feel very confident we have a gold mine out here. It’s an ideal piece of property by size and location,” said Elliot Mininberg, chief financial officer of CSUN’s North Campus University Park Development Corp., a nonprofit affiliate.

Ideally, campus officials hope private development of the property would yield enough money to tear down and rebuild CSUN’s aging football stadium and the 120-unit University Village Apartments nearby, both of which are on the site