The Cal Poly Pomona Foundation Inc. has won an award for its Innovation Village research and technology park.
The Association of University Real Estate Officials presented the award of excellence for an outstanding real estate project at its annual conference in Nashville last month. The award recognizes an innovative, cost-effective project that has had a significant positive impact on a university and is a model for others to follow. This is the first time the foundation has received an award since it joined AUREO in 2000.
Founded in 1983, AUREO is an organization of more than 160 universities and colleges throughout the United States and Canada that have staff dedicated to servicing the real estate needs of their respective higher education institutions.
Innovation Village is a 65-acre property on the Cal Poly Pomona campus that is currently home to 500,000 square feet of Class A office, research and development, and laboratory space. Tenants include Southern California Edison (SCE) and The American Red Cross.
SCE houses its Transmission and Distribution Business Unit at the village and has close ties with the university’s colleges of science, engineering, and business. The American Red Cross operates its Western Region Blood Distribution and Processing Facility, serving the western United States and hosts an extensive blood library here.
Innovation Village is creating high paying jobs in Los Angeles County: the mean wage was $79,850 in 2011, in contrast with the countywide mean of $50,876. In addition, when the property is fully leased, it is estimated to generate economic output of $1.2 billion to the local economy.
The foundation is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that operates as a recognized auxiliary of the California State University.
(Photo: Sandra Vaughan-Acton, director of real estate development for the Cal Poly Pomona Foundation, with the AUREO award.)