Hotel and Conference Center

Construction sign showing a slightly overenthusiastic timetable

The Hotel and Conference Center is intended to provide affordable and convenient short term lodging for visiting scholars. It is also seen as a draw for the university, in keeping with campus' Long Range Development Plan that calls for reorienting the center of campus towards Putah Creek and creating a new "front door" near the Mondavi Center. Also in keeping with a general trend on campus, the Conference Center is being developed privately on university owned land; for campus, this approach significantly reduces construction costs, offloads facility maintenance, and places the burden of management on the shoulders of professionals, while developers benefit by proximity to and association with the university, which virtually guarantees a steady stream of income. Other campus projects leveraging this approach are some of our most recent Student Housing developments such as African Diaspora House, La Rue Park, The Colleges at La Rue, Primero Grove, and the West Village projects.

This project, however much considered a boon by the university, is eyed suspiciously by the City of Davis, which hopes to protect the interests of local business owners. At issue is the perceived loss of revenue to local hoteliers and businesses as university guests bypass downtown Davis and head directly to the Conference Center and Mondavi Center from the UC Davis exit of Interstate 80.

A much delayed groundbreaking was held in early January with construction slated to begin by the end of the month. The projected completion date is late 2009.

A groundbreaking for the hotel portion of the project is scheduled to occur April 30, 2009.

A big level hole in the ground as of Sept 9, 2008

The Hotel and Conference center has been discussed at length in the UC Davis staff newsletter, "Dateline" as well as The California Aggie:

• Dateline UCDavis - Sept 17, 1999: Hotel and conference center eyed
  

• Dateline UCDavis - June 2, 2000: Hotel-conference center moves ahead
  

• Dateline UCDavis - August 17, 2001: Hotel conference center plans move forward
  

• Dateline UCDavis - April 12, 2002: Hotel, conference center to add to campus’s new ‘front door’
  

• Dateline UCDavis - April 22, 2002: Lawsuit challenges hotel, conference center
  

• Dateline UCDavis - December 6, 2002: Judge rules in campus’s favor on hotel-conference center lawsuit

Comments:

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2007-08-30 08:55:03   The last document on the UC Davis Resource and Management webpage about the Hotel and Conference Center is dated March 2002, so presumably the project is stalled indefinitely by the City's opposition. —robinlaughlin

2008-09-05 09:07:57   It appears that both the GSM building and the HCC are under construction now. As I understand, the city of Davis lost a last ditch battle sometime last year and now the university is free to finish construction. —SMCareBare