Ten Years Later, UC Merced Development Helping City Out Of Recession

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Ten years ago, the city of Merced was ground zero for the housing crisis in California. Just a few years before that, the University of California’s brand new Merced campus opened outside the city, which arguably drove the overdevelopment that set up the city to fall so hard during the recession. Now, a decade later, the university has invested in the city with a new downtown building—but that’s not the only new development happening at UC Merced. Driving toward the university in eastern Merced County, your first glimpse of campus is likely to be construction cranes towering over rolling hills and grazing cattle. Then, it’s half-constructed buildings, some wrapped in plastic. Finally you see the giant hole in the ground with the beginnings of a foundation. It’s all part of a project called Merced 2020 . “We’re about to see the largest higher education expansion of its type anywhere in North America,” says campus spokesman Richard Cummings. “We’re building 13 buildings simultaneously.”
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