The relocation of administrative staff of the University of California Santa Cruz to Scotts Valley is going to take a little longer than had been announced in May.
Construction and equipment delays, plus scheduling details in some of the departments prompted revisions to the schedule, which originally had been expected to be completed by early January, said UCSC spokesman Scott Hernandez-Jason.
Internal online communications to affected university employees last week said University Relations will move into the second floor of the Enterprise Technology Center, 100 Enterprise Way, Scotts Valley, by Jan.3; information technology, internal audit, and other business services and administrative offices will move in by Jan.14; human resources will move in by Jan.28 and the financial affairs teams will complete their move by March 11.
Restaurants, stores and other service businesses in Scotts Valley, particularly at the north end of Scotts Valley Drive, are eagerly awaiting the arrival of hundreds of UCSC workers who are potential customers.
Hernandez-Jason also said the actual number full-time, permanent employees to move from locations on the west side of Santa Cruz will be about 350.
The university’s 20-year-lease of 130,000 square feet office space in the former Borland headquarters off Granite Creek Road at Scotts Valle’s north end includes office and meeting room space to accommodate up to 500 people. Hernandez-Jason said a large number of temporary contract workers and student workers also will work out of the Scotts Valley site. Nearly 15 of the university’s administrative staff will be relocating to the renovated offices in the striking former home of one of Scotts Valley’s original high-tech anchors.
The campus includes a small pond, fountains, and walkways in a park-like setting.
Employees will have free parking, and the university is providing Uber, Zipcar and Van Pools to reduce the traffic pouring in and out of the Granite Creek exit at Highway 17.
Construction crews were busy at work on the interior of the first floor of the buildings, which were cluttered with sections of walls, ceiling tiles, and cubicles, plus wiring and doors in the renovation project, which is being paid and cubicle sections.
The owner of the property, Chinese investor Hong Bo Li, is committed to $3.8 million on renovations, including the reopening of the building’s onsite cafeteria.
The move, one of the largest commercial leases in the county in years, will allow the university to add research and academic services and combine its administrative services in a single location, called the UC Santa Cruz Scotts Valley Center.
In the three years before last spring’s announcement of the UCSC lease, 14 businesses, most of them high-tech firms, had leased about 125,000 square feet of space in the Enterprise Technology Center.
The renovation includes installation of sustainable LED lights throughout, plus a wifi system. The new offices also will include shower facilities for employees who are cyclists and runners.
Site work has begun next door to the Enterprise Technology Center, where a Marriot-owned extended-stay hotel is to be built next year.
