Partnership Bears Fruit
Rising near the corner of Devonshire Street and Zelzah Avenue is biotech entrepreneur Alfred Mann’s $70-million work of heart--a sleek, glass-covered complex that will serve as world headquarters for MiniMed Inc.
This afternoon, a host of political, educational and medical-community dignitaries will mark the unveiling of the command center for the company, a leader in the development of insulin pumps used to treat diabetes.
The grand opening of the 500,000-square-foot center provides Mann, founder and executive chairman of MiniMed, a chance to expand manufacture of the next generation of insulin pumps and glucose sensors in a state-of-the-art facility.
It also marks the first--and, so far, only--concrete concept to materialize for CSUN’s North Campus from an inch-thick master plan crafted more than two years ago.
While the town-and-gown partnership carved out between the university and the $2.5-billion company is seen by those on both sides as a tremendous accomplishment, rife with possibilities for future collaboration, it does raise the question: How will the rest of the 65-acre North Campus, an area bordered by Devonshire and Lassen streets and Zelzah and Lindley avenues, be developed?
Former CSUN President Blenda Wilson, who left town in June 1999 to head an East Coast educational foundation, had envisioned both biomed and entertainment alliances on North Campus land that was once home to a horse racetrack.
But a university official said Wednesday that early talks in that direction did not bear fruit and that there are no serious talks ongoing.
In addition, one of the more controversial proposals called for construction of a new football stadium--a prospect that rankled quite a few nearby homeowners.
CSUN officials say those plans are on hold, victims not so much of a neighborhood clash but of a lack of cash.
In the meantime, school officials say they are thrilled with the first efforts to develop the land--19 acres that are part of one of the largest chunks of developable space in the San Fernando Valley.
“We’re very pleased to have a company of that stature on the North Campus,” said Tom McCarron, executive director and president of the North Campus University Park Development Corp., the arm of the school charged with overseeing development of the area.
“The possibilities for the partnership are tremendous.”
Terry Gregg, president and chief operating officer of MiniMed, called the relationship between the school and the company “outstanding,” and said he envisions a world of shared resources where MiniMed staffers serve as visiting professors and “we find ways to bring them onto our campus.”
“I see things in terms of a sharing of educational programs,” Gregg said, noting that the company’s 185-seat training theater, complete with video conferencing technology, will be shared by the school.
MiniMed’s ceremonial unveiling comes five months after the complex opened to the first of its 1,100-plus workers. It caps a construction project that began in May 1999.
Plans call for MiniMed to use 28 of the area’s 65 acres, with an option for an additional four. The current complex is on 19 acres and includes three buildings connected by a central corridor.
The complex houses engineers and technicians crafting the company’s top-selling insulin pumps, as well as the administrative team.
Later this year, workers still at the company’s old headquarters in Sylmar, where glucose sensors are made, will move to the Northridge complex.
In addition to the land already under option, Gregg said the company has its eye on an additional 12 acres, which would bring its total space consumption to 44 acres.
“We certainly feel that we could fill all of that space,” said Gregg, who has been with the company for six years. “I’m not sure what the university’s thoughts are on that.”
As for the rest of the land, Gregg said his preference would be to see additional biotech development, perhaps a complex to house some of the company’s key suppliers.
CSUN’s new president, Jolene Koester, said the school’s first priority is to cement the plans with MiniMed, and then look to the future needs of the school.
“Right now we are focusing on making real the educational partnership with MiniMed,” said Koester, who inherited the controversy over the North Campus development when she was named president in November 1999.
“It is very exciting for both parties to look at what can be done. After that, we will be looking at our core educational needs and values.
“Once we get [the MiniMed project] up and running . . . , we are going to be looking pretty carefully at how we can best use the land to advance our educational mission.”
McCarron noted that very little of the land sits vacant. University housing occupies the southeast portion and another chunk is used for student parking.
The old CSUN stadium will be demolished in about a year to make way for the fourth wing of the MiniMed complex.
With construction of a new stadium estimated at $10 million or more, McCarron said those discussions are “on the back burner,” adding, “there are so many other athletic needs right now.”
Also tabled were discussions with some entertainment post-production companies about setting up shop on campus.
“The discussions with those firms never materialized in the same way that the biotech [talks] did,” he said. “We have no active discussions in terms of moving in that direction.”
Both entertainment and a new stadium were included as options in the school’s 1998 master plan--a campuswide blueprint for development.
But, said McCarron, with land values increasing and school needs evolving, a document only two years old can be out of date.
“Times change, needs change and values change,” he said. “The value of that land is over $600,000, easily. So we’re evaluating.”
He said some of the space could be used to expand faculty and staff housing or to grow the school’s $13-million R&D; operations, which employ “a few hundred people” on campus.
McCarron conceded that, with land that valuable, there is a cost involved in not having it assigned to its highest and best use.
“There’s always an opportunity cost,” he said. “But for now, we are strongly evaluating the campus needs before we enter into agreements that will be so long term that they will limit our ability to satisfy campus needs in the future.
“That land is too valuable not to optimize it.”
