The development of Aggie Square has led to a lot of changes on UC Davis’ Sacramento campus in the past few years, and the project will soon have an even bigger impact across the entire region.

Situated on 11 acres in Sacramento near the UC Davis Medical Center, Aggie Square’s first five structures make up an innovation district featuring more than 1.2 million square feet of public and private space for research and academic pursuits; support for startups launching new businesses; continuing education and job training; and community uses. Those principles of shared use will extend to lab spaces available to university and private researchers and housing available first to students, faculty and staff.

As the project prepared to break ground in 2021, Chancellor Gary S. May described it as “a platform for partnerships across the university, and with our city, our neighborhoods and innovative companies.” This May, the university delivers on that promise, opening the doors on one of the largest development projects in the region.

In the months leading up to — and beyond — Aggie Square’s grand opening, Dateline UC Davis will present a series of articles showcasing the impacts the development will have on students, faculty, staff and the surrounding region. Some of the articles will show how the campus community can engage with the project . The series, Aggie Square Rising, will appear biweekly in the Davis campus’ faculty-staff newsletter. 

The idea

When May joined UC Davis from Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering in 2017, he brought experience in that university’s Tech Square, an Atlanta innovation district that includes public, private and university space.

Tech Square hosts startup accelerators, corporate innovation centers, venture funds, research labs and more.

Before he had officially taken up his post as chancellor, May hosted then-Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and a Sacramento-based delegation for a trip to Atlanta to explore how a similar expansion at UC Davis could “grow the region in positive ways,” as he said at the time. 

“One strong benefit of a technology hub like this is that it provides companies with access to students and faculty for employment and research opportunities,” May said in 2017. “It breeds entrepreneurs.”

Aggie Square will be a welcome development for researchers looking for additional wet lab space in the Sacramento region. A 2018 report by an Aggie Square working group found “there are already private companies seeking partnerships with UC Davis that are difficult to accommodate because of space constraints.”

The concept for Aggie Square was further refined through countless discussions with leadership and faculty members from various colleges and professional schools within UC Davis, as well as with other employees and community members. 

Since 2018, UC Davis has held more than 90 stakeholder and community meetings, given presentations to neighborhood associations, invited residents to tour Aggie Square and other outreach. Since August 2022, quarterly Aggie Square Community Engagement meetings have attracted 540 attendees on a variety of topics including affordable housing, jobs, workforce development and career pathways, innovation and entrepreneurship and public art opportunities. Over the past 18 months, 125 people have joined walking tours to learn more about Aggie Square.

Community impacts

Those meetings and other discussions led to a series of commitments by UC Davis, the city of Sacramento and developers Wexford Science & Technology in a document known as the Community Benefits Partnership Agreement, or CBPA. The agreement includes more than $50 million for affordable housing, local hiring goals for construction jobs, funding for improvements to Stockton Boulevard and its intersection with Broadway, and an annual fund for neighborhood priorities like youth opportunities, local entrepreneurship, public art, minority- and veteran-owned businesses, and workforce development.

An economic impact report completed in 2020 estimated that Aggie Square would add nearly $5 billion a year to the economy of the Sacramento region and generate 25,000 jobs. The construction phase is delivering an additional $2.6 billion in one-off economic impact and 15,000 job-years.

The project also has allocated money to the Stockton Boulevard Housing Stabilization program, which helps nearby residents stay in their homes by funding home repairs, bill payment assistance, first-time homebuyer financial literacy classes, homelessness prevention and more. 

New housing on the Aggie Square site is taking the form of Anova Aggie Square, a 252-bed development featuring floor plans ranging from micro-studios to four bedrooms. The apartments will be available this spring, with university affiliates having first priority to lease. It will include both market-rate and affordable housing units.

Aggie Square's construction is funded by private investment. Wexford Science & Technology is leasing university-owned land to finance, build and manage the Aggie Square buildings. The university and other partners are leasing spaces in the buildings. 

Key tenants

Sixty percent of the space at Aggie Square will be leased by the university. Leading the roster of university tenants is the School of Medicine. Several other university Aggie Square tenants have been announced, including the UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, known for its pioneering animal DNA testing and genetics services, and the Department of Biomedical Engineering, whose new master’s degree program in medical device development will be based entirely at Aggie Square. 

Aggie Square will also be home to Wexford Science & Technology’s Connect Labs Sacramento, a 50,000-square-feet space featuring pre-built and furnished lab, support and office space with a curated amenities, services and shared equipment for emerging and growth companies, particularly in life sciences, biomedical engineering, technology and data sciences, among others.