The State : Major Gift to UC Irvine Told

The Irvine Co. announced a major endowment to UC Irvine, including a $1.5-million gift from President Donald Bren and an unusual arrangement that allows for commercial development of 2 million square feet of campus land. The endowment is intended to bring top professors to the 23-year-old university. “It is my hope that this endowment over time will place UCI in a position of tremendous and virtually unparalleled academic strength,” Bren said at a press conference with university officials in Newport Beach. Key to the endowment is an agreement by the Irvine Co. to change restrictions on 510 acres of land it sold to UCI in 1964. That purchase agreement stipulated that no money-making enterprises could be housed on the UCI land. By changing those restrictions, UCI can now develop up to 2 million square feet of its campus “for almost any use except major retail.” The campus is expected to use the space to bring in high-tech businesses.