SUBJECT:  Selection of Conference Center Hotel
                     Development Team for Blackhorse Farms Land

I would like to update the campus community about the selection of the development team and operator for the conference center hotel to be developed under ground lease on the Blackhorse Farms Land, and acknowledge the invaluable guidance offered by many members of the campus community in overseeing this project.

After an extensive request for proposal process, UCSD today will announce its selection of Lowe Hospitality Group, a division of L.A.-based Lowe Enterprises, Inc., as the development team with which it will exclusively negotiate for the design, financing, development, and operation of a conference center hotel on this UCSD land sited at North Torrey Pines Road across from the Eleanor Roosevelt College site. The University will provide the site on a long-term, unsubordinated ground lease basis.

Lowe teamed with Hill Glazier Architects of San Francisco and Burton & Associates Landscape Architects of San Diego in the proposal for the project design and operating plan which the University selected.

Lowe Enterprises is a national real estate development, investment and management firm founded in 1972. The firm's hospitality division manages 21 hotel properties nationwide including, locally, the Hotel del Coronado and L'Auberge del Mar Resort and Spa.

The conference center hotel will meet a significant UCSD need for facilities to host academic and executive meetings and conferences and overnight visitors. In addition, the project will provide ground lease income to the campus and employment opportunities for students. A focus group of user department representatives will be formed to assist in the planning of the facility. Questions regarding the project should be directed to Nancy E. Kossan, Director of Real Estate Development at 534-1488.

Final plans for the conference center hotel will be presented to the UC Board of Regents for approval in January 2000.

I am indebted to all the members of the campus community who have assisted with the review process, and especially acknowledge the contributions of the members of the Committee to Review Blackhorse Farms Conference Center Hotel Proposal Submittals:

Daniel Arovas, Associate Professor, Physics
Ann L. Craig, Professor, Political Science
Terence M. Davidson, Professor, Medicine
Theodore Groves, Professor, Economics
Margo G. Haygood, Associate Professor, SIO/MBRD
Boone Hellmann, Assistant Vice Chancellor, Facilities Design and Construction
Kathleen Kelleher, Real Estate Officer, Office of the President
Nancy E. Kossan, Director of Real Estate Development
David R. Miller, Associate Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs
Terrence Patterson, Associated Students
Milton Phegley, Campus Community Planner
David Rinehart, FAIA, Design Review Board
Michael Skidmore, Graduate Student Association
Mary Walshok, Associate Vice Chancellor, Extended Studies & Public Programs
John O. White, UCSD Staff Association

                                                John A. Woods
                                                Vice Chancellor