Partnership

The development and implementation of UC Davis West Village is a collaboration between the university and a private developer, West Village Community Partnership LLC (WVCP), led by Carmel Partners of San Francisco with their joint venture partner Urban Villages of Denver.

The campus retains ownership of the land and has entered into a ground lease with WVCP, which will design, finance and construct Phase 1 of West Village, including development and management of rental housing and the construction and sales of the single family homes. WVCP and the campus share responsibility for leasing the retail space in the development.

The total Phase 1 cost is around $280 million, of which UC Davis invested approximately $17 million to bring utilities and infrastructure to the site. The university will recoup this investment through a surcharge placed on resident utility bills.

The Project Team

Developer

• Carmel Partners, based in San Francisco, is a national, full-service real estate investment company specializing in acquisition, development, renovation and property management services. Founded in 1992 by Ron Zeff, Carmel Partners also maintains offices in Irvine, Denver, Seattle, Washington, D.C. and Honolulu. Senior Vice President Nolan Zail has led the Carmel Partners team at UC Davis West Village from its initial concept through its current development.
• Urban Villages is a real estate and investment company committed to industry-leading sustainable and responsible development.

Site Design

• Civil Engineer: Cunningham Engineering, Sacramento, Calif.
• Landscape Architect: SWA Group, San Francisco, Calif.

Architecture

• Single-family homes: Lim Chang Rohling & Associates, Pasadena, Calif.
• Student apartments: MVE Institutional, Oakland, Calif.
• Mixed-use buildings: Studio E Architects, San Diego, Calif.

Energy Partners

Academic Units

To develop the zero net energy strategy for West Village, UC Davis created the West Village Energy Initiative. Numerous academic and corporate partners are involved in the endeavor, including UC Davis research centers such as these:

• The Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis (ITS-Davis) organizes and conducts multidisciplinary research on emerging transportation issues, disseminates this research through conferences, scholarly publications, and transportation education.
• The UC Davis Biogas Energy Project is the first large-scale demonstration in the U.S. of a new technology developed at UC Davis called an "anaerobic phased solids digester." The system diverts organic matter, such as food waste and yard clippings, away from landfills and into the energy grid.
• The UC Davis California Lighting Technology Center works to stimulate, facilitate, and accelerate the development and commercialization of energy-efficient lighting and daylighting technologies.
• The UC Davis Center for Water-Energy Efficiency identifies water-energy efficient technologies, analyzes their impact and viability, and promotes solutions that aggressively improve energy efficiency in the water use sector.
• The UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center assembled an advisory committee in 2006, and, in 2007, issued a comprehensive energy strategy for West Village.  Written with the Davis Energy Group (see Corporate Partners, below), the report outlined technology packages, including efficiency measures and renewable generation to minimize energy demanded from the grid. 
• The UC Davis Western Cooling Efficiency Center engages in a wide range of projects, from fundamental research to market analysis, including technology evaluation for West Village.

Corporate Partners

West Village Community Partners has been an active partner in pursuing the zero net energy strategy in West Village, as have several other business partners, including:

• Chevron Energy Solutions was brought in by West Village Community Partners to help formulate the zero net energy strategy for the development.
• Davis Energy Group (DEG) is a Davis-based mechanical engineering firm focusing on reducing net energy use in buildings through the application of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.
• Energy and Environmental Economics advises utilities, regulators, government agencies, power producers, energy technology companies, and investors on a wide range of critical issues in the electricity and natural gas industries.
  
• PG&E
• SunPower Corp. of San Jose, Calif. manufactured, designed and installed the 4-megawatt solar power system that is generating the electricity needed for rental apartments housing the first 1,980 tenants as well as the retail space in West Village.

Funding Agencies

To date, UC Davis has garnered grants totaling nearly $7.5 million in support of the West Village Energy Initiative:

• $1.94 million from the California Energy Commission’s PIER Renewable-Based Energy Secure Community (RESCO) program to assist in the design and engineering of waste-to-renewable energy systems;
• $2.5 million from the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Community Renewable Energy Deployment program (FOA 122) to help fund the waste-to-renewable-energy component
• $500,000 from the California Energy Commission as a matching grant for the U.S. Dept. of Energy grant
• $2.495 million under the California Public Utility Commission's California Solar Initiative RD&D Solicitation #2 to study innovative technologies and business models related to solar photovoltaic systems.