CSUMB proposes a public/private partnership to build a 72-acre, mixed-use housing project.

At the corner of 2nd Avenue and Eighth Street in Marina sits a 55-acre asphalt wasteland, a vestige left over from Fort Ord days, now an unused part of the CSU Monterey Bay campus.

Rising from that wasteland in the future will possibly be commercial spaces and multi-family housing units, part of a 72-acre public/private partnership between CSUMB and a commercial developer.

It’s too early in the process to know how many housing units, but for now CSUMB’s Strategic Initiatives unit is exploring a potential partnership with The Michaels Organization, a New Jersey-based apartment developer with over 60,000 units in 35 states, according to the company’s website. No agreements have been signed, says Anya Spear, CSUMB’s director of Strategic Initiatives.

The proposal is for 10 percent of the units to be below-market rate for CSUMB, with no decision yet on whether they would house students or faculty. There could be additional below-market rate units, but most are proposed as market-rate. The stores would not be big-box national chains, but “neighborhood scale,” Spears says. The project would be designed to connect the community with the campus, including intersecting with the planned 26.4-mile bike/pedestrian trail known as FORTAG.

The university is offering the public a first glimpse of the project in three 25-minute presentations at noon, 2pm and 4pm, on Thursday, Sept. 29, inside the CSUMB Alumni and Visitors Center, at 5108 Fourth Ave., Marina. Participants will be able to submit comments. A pre-recorded online presentation and link to submit comments is scheduled for availability on Sept. 29, at csumb.edu/strategic-initiatives/2nd-ave-development.