One Era Ends at CSUN as Another Gets Started
In her last official appearance as Cal State Northridge’s third president, Blenda J. Wilson accepted a $361,000 lease payment Thursday from biomedical entrepreneur Alfred E. Mann at a ground-breaking ceremony for the planned $80-million North Campus biotech park.
Mann, whose Sylmar-based MiniMed has enjoyed rapid growth in the past few years, confirmed that he has asked to lease an additional 12 acres, which would boost the project to 40 acres.
The development is expected to generate research opportunities for CSUN students and faculty, and annual lease payments worth $800,000 to the university. It is one of the largest private-public partnerships in the San Fernando Valley and represents one of the most important achievements of Wilson’s administration.
Standing before four hulking earthmovers, Wilson expressed satisfaction at still being around to see her vision take form “the day before the packers come to my house.”
More than 40 people gathered at the edge of the 19-acre dirt field, including representatives from Valley political offices and the business community.
Wilson and Mann ended the news conference by waving orange flags and sending the earthmovers thundering away.
Also present was Art Elbert, CSUN’s former vice president of building and administration, who masterminded the North Campus development project now set for completion by the end of next year.
Originally scheduled to begin last summer, construction was delayed after neighboring homeowners opposed Wilson’s decision to build a football stadium near the MiniMed biotech facility. The final component of the five-building, 28-acre complex would stand on land occupied by the existing stadium.
Another reason for the delay was the explosive growth of MiniMed, which forced planners to reevaluate the size and speed of the project.
“We’ve got to move more quickly than we thought,” Mann said. “We’re desperate for more space.”
MiniMed, which makes insulin pumps, has doubled its sales in the past year and has grown from 526 workers in 1996 to nearly 1,000. Mann has said that he expects to hire 1,000 more people this year and said many of those positions could be filled by CSUN students.
Wilson said university officials would discuss Mann’s latest proposal next month, and said she was confident that the result could be a far more lucrative deal than the initial 28-acre project.
“Now we know how to do it,” she said.
Leasing the additional land to Mann could leave as little as 15 undeveloped acres, possibly too small a parcel to attract a much-desired entertainment industry partner, some fear.
But the talk Thursday was upbeat, with Wilson and Mann using such terms as “unprecedented,” “mutually beneficial” and “extraordinary” to describe the partnership. And the development’s benefits will extend beyond MiniMed and CSUN, Wilson said.
“Los Angeles has a reputation of being a very difficult place to do business,” she said. “Hopefully this will bring business to this area.”
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Wilson said Interim President Louanne Kennedy, who will assume her new duties Monday, has met with City Councilman Hal Bernson about establishing a “biotechnology corridor” stretching from Ventura to the Valley.
Wilson’s tenure as president ends today; on July 1 she will head the multibillion-dollar Nellie Mae Foundation, a New England-based educational reform organization.
