After years of inaction, plans to develop MBEST Center emerge.

When the U.S. Army gave 1,100 acres of the former Fort Ord to UC Santa Cruz in 1994, there was a bold plan for repurposing the area, which straddles Marina and unincorporated Monterey County. Officials envisioned building out nearly half of that property and preserving the rest as open space, creating an R&D hub that would become the biggest employment center on the former base, with a projected 7,500 jobs.

UCSC took some steps toward implementing that vision, and used federal grants to pave roads and install utility hook-ups and street lights. But the developers never came, and 20 years in, they’re looking to sell off some parcels at auction.

“We want to cut the weeds down and get some signs up, 10 percent down, 90 percent financing available,” says Monterey County Economic Development Director Dave Spaur. “If [UCSC] would allow it to be sold, we could generate activity. A lot of companies don’t like leased land.”

In years past, UCSC had partnered with two different developers, but both backed out. By 2014, UCSC was ready to offload most of the land, and got permission from the Board of Regents to auction off parcels. The first sold for $900,000 last year to a security company, and another 47 acres could be available as early as this summer.

UCSC will hold on to the Monterey Bay Education, Science and Technology Center (MBEST Center), built in 2001, though even the university itself hasn’t permanently moved in there. The Coastal Ocean Current Monitoring Program used the center for a time, but then got on-campus lab space in Santa Cruz. (The center is now fully occupied for the first time ever, with tenants including the Monterey County Business Council and Fort Ord cleanup contractor Arcadis.)

Graham Bice, managing director of the MBEST Center, says UCSC will keep plenty of land for research-related purposes. “Rather than holding more than 400 acres for exclusively R&D use, we’ll have 71,” Bice says. “The remainder can be for other job-generating purposes.”

Local officials view that as the best plan. “UC hasn’t demonstrated a capacity to really act as a master developer on this land,” says Josh Metz, economic development coordinator for the Fort Ord Reuse Authority. “This is a critical property for [economic] recovery.”

County Supervisor Dave Potter feels frustrated that UCSC has done so little, but auctioning the property strikes him as unfair: “The underlying problem people would have is if UC sells it off and makes a boatload of money.”