The husband-and-wife team and their partners faced various challenges as they secured land for their school franchise, while negotiating with the city and other government agencies.

The key was a multimillion-dollar Small Business Administration loan, arranged through TMC Financing of Irvine two years ago.

“Our construction is complete,” Abhijit Patel told the Business Journal recently, breathing a sigh of relief.

It took three years to negotiate with the local school district, as they built the school building, at 1629 Victory Road, from the ground up.

“Going through that process was pretty long and arduous. Just dealing with any government agency—it has its curves and bends, and everything took way longer,” Patel said.

Market Haywire

“By the time everything got solidified, the market went haywire post-COVID—30% to 35% cost increases and the cost of construction,” Patel added.

He said he and his partners went back to the lender, “they were pretty understanding,” he said.

“They had been witnessing the market patterns. We got approved for the loan we were looking for, even though financially the business case still worked and all the good stuff. But just going through that process was pretty stressful,” he said.

Patel said he expects licensing to come through soon.

Goddard School offers early childhood education programs for children aged six weeks to 6 years old. The school has a specialized learning program, Wonder of Learning, to help children explore their interests and prepare them for school and beyond.

Goddard has more than 600 franchise locations across 37 states and Washington, D.C. Goddard currently has more than 75,000 students.

The company is based in King of Prussia, Pa.

Patel said there is an aspect of profitability, but the true motivators are its early years educational community aspects.

“It’s a proven business model,” he said.

Referring to the SBA 504 loan, he said with a laugh: “At a moment like this, I need to make those payments.”

The SBA loan provided for an “interest reserve” that shielded him and his partners as the school ramps up.

“From then on, it’s going to be our not-so-deep pockets.”

The school will start with 50 pupils, then graduate to about 100 and top out at about 240.

The post Goddard School Overcomes Small Business Challenges appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

The Orange-based public agency said the funding will address a workforce shortage in areas without enough healthcare professionals, particularly community health centers and safety net providers.

“Our grants to educational institutions will tackle the problem at its roots by funding training and education for tomorrow’s caregivers for the Medi-Cal population,” CalOptima’s Chief Executive Michael Hunn said in a statement.

This is the first phase of CalOptima’s five-year, $50 million Provider Workforce Development Initiative that was launched last year.

Healthcare Pipeline

Among the seven recipients is Chapman University, which is receiving a $5 million grant that will fund full-tuition scholarships for low-income students to attend its physician assistant program.

“This allows us to attract well-qualified students who would normally not be able to afford the program,” Janeen Hill, dean of Chapman’s Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences, told the Business Journal.

Students supported by these scholarships will be required to work in medically under-served parts in OC for the first five years after graduating, helping address the workforce shortage.

Coast Community College District (CCCD) is receiving a grant of $2 million, which the district is matching with $2.7 million from state funds.

The combined $4.7 million will expand the Running Start to Nursing program at Golden West College by 40 students per year and develop a dual enrollment pathway to the radiologic technology certificate program at Orange Coast College.

In partnership with California State University, San Bernardino, the nursing program allows students starting in high school to concurrently enroll at Golden West and CSUSB, earning credits toward an associate degree and Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

CCCD will also increase the number of students in its existing radiologic technology certificate program at Orange Coast College by 30 students per year, developing a pathway through partnerships with Santa Ana Unified and Newport Mesa Unified School Districts to dual enroll in the program.

“We want to help our students get trained in professions that are high in demand so they can not only have a fulfilling professional life, but also afford to live and stay here in Orange County,” Andreea Serban, vice chancellor of educational services and technology at CCCD, told the Business Journal.

The Recipients

Santiago Canyon College is receiving $1.2 million to expand its behavior technician and medical assistant programs. It will also develop a licensed vocational nursing curriculum.

California State University, Fullerton will use its grant of $5 million to increase concurrent enrollment of its Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program.

Concordia University will receive $5 million to expand its Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program and provide scholarships to pre-nursing and ABSN students.

The Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing at the University of California, Irvine will be awarded $5 million to create a one-year training program for prelicensure nursing students.

Orange County United Way will receive $1.4 million to expand its UpSkill OC program.

The post CalOptima Grants $25M to Local Colleges, Nonprofits appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

The nonprofit performing arts school, co-founded by local entrepreneur and philanthropist Charlie Zhang, is planning a new $40 million facility at Irvine’s Great Park.

The 85,000-square-foot facility would include education and practice spaces, rehearsal rooms, an auditorium, and offices, according to city filings. The building could also serve as the administrative home for several other local music- and art-related organizations, including the Pacific Symphony, Lyric Opera and Pacific Chorale.

The project would be a big step up in size for OCMD, which currently operates out of a 21,000-square-foot building elsewhere in the city, along Fitch Avenue. The nonprofit would sell that building to pay for a portion of the new facility and would fund the remainder of the project via a commercial construction loan secured by donation pledges, according to city filings.

Property records show Zhang paid $8.2 million in 2016 for the Fitch Avenue facility.

The City of Irvine late last month approved a plan that will move OCMD’s expansion plans forward, alongside another nearby $65 million facility at the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro base that will serve as the new home for fellow nonprofit Pretend City.

“Moving to the Great Park is going to be an incredible gift to the community and to the kids we’re serving,” OCMD’s Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Douglas Freeman told the Business Journal.

Bigger Stage

Pick Up Stix founder Zhang and Freeman created OCMD to provide top quality musical arts education and training for children, regardless of their family’s ability to pay.

It currently serves close to 400 students. Most hail from Irvine, Costa Mesa, Tustin and Santa Ana.

Its existing, 21,000-square-foot facility opened in 2017, and includes practice rooms, classrooms and studio space for recording and dance. It also counts a 140-seat theater.

The new plans mark a major upsizing of the nonprofit’s ambition.

OCMD’s new building is to include 27 studios, 10 practice rooms and a sound stage.

Preparing students for professional conservatories and careers “requires a lot of space,” Freeman said. “The demand for the kind of instruction that we provide definitely exceeds capacity.”

Out of the 85,000 square feet, 15,000 square feet will be allotted for a 450-seat theater that OCMD plans to also make available to the community.

“We will have enough room for local schools to bring their kids or local ensembles, jazz groups and other groups that usually have no place to go,” Freeman said.

Student Boost

OCMD currently brings in around $2.5 million in revenue annually, according to tax filings. It is currently operating near its maximum capacity of students; the school saw attendance fall in the early stages of the pandemic, when it had to temporarily close and shift to online learning, but has since rebounded.

“We lost a few years, but we’re building up again,” Zhang told the Business Journal.

During a visit to the school’s current location in late 2022, Irvine City Manager Oliver Chi proposed the move to the Great Park, putting in motion the current plans, Zhang said.

“We wanted to take that opportunity to build a state-of-the-art facility for the next generation,” Zhang said.

Zhang, who now runs Laguna Niguel-based real estate investment firm Zion Enterprises after selling Pick Up Stix for $50 million in 2001, was inspired to start the community music school because while growing up in Shanghai, he played the clarinet and was offered a scholarship to a music academy in Los Angeles, which brought him to the U.S.

Boosting Visibility

“Most people don’t know we exist because we’re a young school,” Freeman said.

The relocation to the Great Park will boost its visibility, and its enrollment. The new space should be large enough to double the number of students OCMD can enroll, Freeman said.

Currently, about 40% of the school’s students are on financial aid, according to Freeman.

Those who can’t afford tuition, which averages from $50 to $100 per lesson, are supported by an endowed scholarship fund.

OCMD also offers programs geared toward military veterans, as well as seniors with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Freeman said the school is starting to work to publicize its work to aid in raising the funds needed to cover the cost of development for the new building.

Pretend City’s New Home

Pretend City, a nonprofit that operates a children’s museum and provides early childhood development services, has its own expansion plans in the works at the Great Park.

It is planning a $65 million facility at an area of the city-owned park that’s called the Cultural Terrace, close to the forthcoming new home for Orange County Music & Dance.

The new development will include 20,000 square feet of indoor and 20,000 square feet of outdoor exhibit spaces, alongside offices, facilities, and a new restaurant, among other things.

Pretend City will also have rentable spaces for partner nonprofits in Orange County, such as inclusive preschool Beyond Blindness and mental health services organization Start Well.

“Pretend City is looking forward to bringing our early learning and child development programs to even more families, helping them ensure their children are growing up healthy and ready to succeed in school,” Executive Director Ellen Pais said in a statement.

The museum describes itself as “the world in a nutshell,” with 19 interactive exhibits in a kid-sized city including a post office, Trader Joe’s grocery store and a fire station.

With the added space, Pretend City will be able to create 14 new learning exhibits and serve up to four times more visiting school children annually, according to its website.

The post Nonprofit Art School Plots $40M Project at Irvine’s Great Park appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

Arnold brings prior education experience as the former assistant dean of the Argyros College of Business and Economics at Chapman University.

“After conducting a comprehensive national search, we are pleased to welcome Dr. Tom Arnold as Vanguard University’s inaugural dean of the Patty School of Business and Management as he leads our programs in developing character-rich business leaders prepared to make a positive impact in Southern California and beyond,” Vanguard President Michael Beals said in a statement.

The business school will launch this fall and house programs including accounting, business administration and marketing.

Vanguard University last year named its new business school after Patty Arvielo, the co-founder and CEO of Tustin mortgage lender New American Funding, one of Orange County’s largest private companies by revenue.

The program’s new title marks the first business school in the U.S. to be named after a Latina woman, officials said.

The post Vanguard University Appoints Founding Dean to Business School appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

The finished project, dubbed the Gateway building, measures 79,000 square feet and was financed by a combination of district and state funding for a total of $60 million.

The three-story building, located across the street from the Shops at Mission Viejo, has a collection of student services—including admissions, financial aid and counseling—on the bottom levels and classrooms on the upper level.

“We wanted to design a new building that fit the way we want to deliver student services,” Saddleback President Elliot Stern told the Business Journal.

900K-SF Campus

The Gateway building is the largest addition to Saddleback College, the largest community college in South OC by 400,000 square feet, since the school’s science building opened in 2016.

Currently, the largest building on campus is the 101,000-square-foot library and learning resource center, which was built in 1973.

The school’s campus now runs nearly 900,000 square feet.

Officials hope the building’s modern design features, based on high-end retail centers like Apple stores, invites students to take more advantage of the resources on campus.

“These services are not hidden away but are prominently on display, creating an environment that enhances student access and support,” South Orange County Community College District (SOCCCD) Chancellor Julianna Barnes told the Business Journal in an email.

Saddleback is one of two schools operating under the umbrella of SOCCCD, along with Irvine Valley College.

The Mission Viejo project was built by McCarthy Building Cos. Inc., which has a local office in Newport Beach.

McCarthy also constructed the recently opened $61 million Arts Village at IVC; see the March 4 print edition of the Business Journal for more on IVC’s latest addition.

Construction of the Gateway building began in November 2021 and was completed last December, according to project director at McCarthy Robert Ragland.

Transforming Campus

Other buildings on Saddleback’s campus, which opened in 1968 and now counts 43 buildings, are also getting an updated look.

Two large projects are expected to be completed in one year from now.

Saddleback’s new math and science buildings are currently under development and will replace one of the oldest buildings on campus, which has already been torn down.

The nearly 50,000-square-foot building will have three stories dedicated to STEM programs such as computer science and cybersecurity.

“It’s really a time of transformational change for the campus,” President Stern said.

ATEP Update

Off campus, and on the grounds of Tustin’s former military base, SOCCCD is adding a pair of buildings within the Advanced Technology and Education Park (ATEP); the latest additions broke ground last March.

The 61.4-acre complex within the Tustin Legacy development, which serves students of Saddleback and IVC, includes IVC’s School of Integrated Design, Engineering and Automation. The building opened in April 2018 after two years of construction.

The two newest buildings, for Saddleback’s use, will house the school’s culinary arts and advanced transportation programs, which serve about 400 students each.

Culinary students will move out of a portable classroom into a 20,0000-square-foot building that is slated to have four commercial kitchens and a restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating for approximately 70 people.

The new technologies at ATEP will especially benefit the auto tech program, which has shifted focuses to electric and autonomous vehicles, officials said.

The new auto building is a few miles from the headquarters of Rivian Automotive Inc. (Nasdaq: RIVN), among other notable EV firms based in the area.

“We think that’s where the future of that industry is,” Stern said.

A main feature of the 30,000-square-foot auto tech building is an auto shop with 14 lifts, as well as a lab for calibrating automotive radar systems.

“Both of these programs really needed new facilities that were more state-of-the-art,” Stern said.

Stern hopes ATEP’s central location in Tustin will help connect students to both EV firms as well as more established automakers in the area like Hyundai Motor America in Fountain Valley, which last year counted 640 employees in Orange County and 775,000 vehicles sold.

The Tustin hangar fire that first started on Nov. 7 hasn’t hindered construction as much as the recent rainstorms have, according to Stern.

“Our biggest enemy out there has been rain as has been the case for all construction,” Stern said.

“Sometimes it’s difficult and we ask for everybody’s patience and tolerance.”

Increasing Enrollment

Student enrollment at Saddleback College has returned to pre-pandemic numbers, Stern said.

The college currently counts 25,000 students for this year. Last year, it enrolled about 7,000 full-time students and an additional 16,000 part-time students.

Its most popular programs are real estate and nursing, the latter of which was recently named No. 1 in the country for license exam pass rates, according to Stern.

Stern attributes the recent enrollment growth to a combination of efforts to attract new students in different areas.

Since the pandemic, Saddleback has become a Hispanic Serving Institution and increased marketing to “stopouts,” or students who temporarily withdraw from school.

“We recognize that our community is changing and that we have to change in order to provide access to our institution,” Stern said.

In addition to offering low tuition fees like most California community colleges, a majority of Saddleback’s classes now have zero textbook fees.

“We’re able to lower barriers for students and welcome back folks who thought it was too expensive,” Stern said.

Intuitive Design

The entrances to each floor of Saddleback College’s new Gateway building were designed with the needs of students in mind, according to President Elliot Stern.

“This is the first time we’ve leveraged the topography of our campus,” Stern said.
Built onto a hill, the building has separate entrances to the first and second floor.

Resources for new and prospective students are made readily available on the first floor, which is close to a lot with short-term parking often used by visitors.

On the first floor, students will be immediately greeted by a “genius bar,” modeled after Apple’s technical support area, with around 10 iMac computers.

Students can join a waiting queue from their phones to receive help from staff with admission and records and financial aid, among other things.

“It’s all digital queuing, so there are no physical lines anywhere in this building,” Stern said.

Alternatively, the second floor opens out to the main quad for students more familiar with the campus.

It houses services more geared toward current students such as the career center and transfer center.

The post Saddleback College Unveils $60M Addition appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

The three-building development is the largest addition in years to Irvine’s primary community college, which as of last year served about 5,600 full-time students and an additional 6,100 part-time students.

The nearly 62,000-square-foot village adds a permanent home to IVC’s School of the Arts, and includes space for studio arts, art history, music, digital media art, interactive media arts and dance classes, among other uses.

It officially opened for instruction on the first day of spring semester on Jan. 13.

“This is bringing together a centralized hub for all our arts which was previously spread out throughout campus,” President John Hernandez told the Business Journal.

The Arts Village is part of IVC’s plan to create opportunities for new programs within the School of the Arts. IVC last year hired a full-time faculty member to develop the first-ever sculpture and ceramics classes in the visual arts building.

The school also recently added a new associate degree in interactive media arts focusing on gaming design production and management. Irvine-based Blizzard Entertainment Inc., which has roughly 2,000 area workers following a recent layoff, has for years been the largest software company in Orange County by employee count.

Its headquarters are a few miles away from IVC, and the area has numerous other notable gaming firms.

Hernandez said he believes the $61 million investment in the Arts Village will help IVC become a “more viable option” to local high school students.

“It’s going to create a continued pathway for high school students who are interested in the arts,” Hernandez said.

18-Year Vision

The Arts Village consists of three buildings dedicated to music and dance, visual arts and fine arts and gallery.

It was built by McCarthy Building Cos. and DLR Group.

The Arts Village is IVC’s most expensive construction project to date and was funded by the South Orange County Community College District (SOCCD) and the state of California.

In 2021, its original budget was cited as $44 million; the boost in its cost was due to state funds not being included in the project cost estimate.

The vision for the Arts Village has been in the school’s master plan since 2006, long before Hernandez was appointed president in 2020.

“It has finally come to fruition,” Hernandez said.

Construction began in fall 2021 and was completed around last December.

The Arts Village sits next to the school’s Performing Arts Center on top of what used to be a vacant dirt lot.

The largest building in the Arts Village is the 32,549-square-foot music and dance building.
Some features of the building include music classrooms, two dance studios and a music library.

The school said it invested $1.2 million in 19 Steinway & Sons pianos for the music department, making IVC an All-Steinway designated school.

“This prestigious recognition makes us stand out with top music departments on the West Coast,” Hernandez said.

The second largest of the new buildings is the visual arts building, measuring 20,617 square feet, which houses classrooms for painting, drawing, sculpture and ceramics.

Directly across from the visual arts building is the 8,685-square-foot fine arts and gallery building.

While it will primarily serve as a gallery to showcase both student and visiting art exhibits, the building also has a recital hall that seats 150 people.

Upcoming Projects

The school expects to break ground on two more buildings next spring.

IVC is building a new student union and student services center that are slated to be completed in spring 2027.

Both projects are being funded by SOCCD, and will cost a combined $101.7 million, according to Hernandez.

The upcoming student union building is anticipated to be 25,000 square feet and will be a space for student activity with a lounge, kitchen and café and indoor dining area that can hold up to 200 people.

“It’s similar to what you might find at a four-year university,” Hernandez said.

Clubs and organizations such as the student government will also be in the student union.

The new student services building will be a little under 50,000 square feet and assist students with admission and records, financial aid, counseling and more.

It will replace the current center that’s nearly 20 years old, Hernandez said.

He hopes the new center becomes a “one-stop shop” for students.

Once both buildings are completed, the school will demolish the existing student services center and build a large outdoor space capable of seating 3,000 people for graduation, according to the school’s website.

The post Irvine Valley College Unveils $61M Arts Village appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

Chapman last month announced a gift from Chairman Emeritus Doy Henley to establish the Doy B. Henley School of Management within the newly elevated business college.
The amount of the gift was undisclosed.

“The new dedicated School of Management will train future leaders to succeed by providing the academic and hands-on training required of good managers in any field,” Henley told the Business Journal.

The study of business management generally covers business strategy and policy, human resource management and organizational theory, according to Argyros College of Business and Economics Dean Henrik Cronqvist.

“With his great success in the business community and as a board leader, it’s fitting that the school of management will bear his name,” Chapman University’s President Daniele Struppa said in a statement.

The gift was announced during the university’s 2024 State of the University address on Feb. 9.

Henley Legacy

There are already several buildings, chairs and scholarships named after Henley on the Orange-based university’s campus, including student housing center Henley Hall and the Doy and Dee Henley Reading Room in Leatherby Libraries, dedicated to Henley and his late wife, Dee Henley.

Henley grew up in “modest circumstances” and moved from Southern Illinois to California with his wife Dee in the mid-1950s after seeing job ads in the newspaper.

He went on to own and operate several manufacturing companies such as Aeromil Aircraft Engineering, which was among the first to use computer-aided tools to machine special surfaces in aerospace products.

He also owned Cox Hobbies, a manufacturer of radio-controlled planes, trains and other products in the toy industry. It is known as one of the earliest companies to use electronic data for supply chain management.

Henley first became involved with the university through his friendship with real estate developer and prominent local businessman George Argyros.

Henley joined Chapman’s board of trustees in 1986 before serving as chairman from 2013 to 2015.

Now, as chairman emeritus, he is still making an impact on the school as an active donor.

Last November, Henley donated a $1 million gift to establish an endowed fund supporting innovative research at Argyros College.

Henley was awarded the Presidential Medal, Chapman’s highest honor, that same month for his leadership and philanthropy.

Record Year

Last year was a record fundraising year for Chapman, according to Matt Parlow, executive vice president and chief advancement officer.

The school raised more than $72 million for the 2022-2023 academic year and publicly kicked off its Inspire campaign last February.

Struppa said that the school has raised $380 million to date toward its $500 million goal that it aims to raise by 2028.

Struppa also gave updates on several campus projects like the student housing complex Chapman Court, which is set to open next fall for incoming undergraduate and transfer students.

Rising in Rankings

Chapman’s business college has been steadily improving its national ranking.

It ranked No. 60 in the business schools category by U.S. News & World Report, jumping up 12 spots from the year prior, and has a long-term goal of reaching the top 50.

A $10 million gift from Julia and George Argyros, announced last September, elevated the Argyros school to a college.

The university said the shift to a college will allow for more focused schools in different areas of business study such as the Burra School of Accounting and Finance that was established last year.

The post Chapman Launches Henley School of Management appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

Meridith Randall, who has been serving as interim president of the community college since last April, was appointed to the permanent position by Coast Community College District on Jan. 17.

“I am thankful to the board and energized to lead this college into the future,” Randall told the Business Journal.

Golden West serves nearly 11,000 enrollees each semester, including close to ­ 3,000 full-time students.

Areas of focus at the community college include criminal justice, nursing, cosmetology and automotive technology.

The Huntington Beach school is one of three community colleges in the Coast Community College District, the others are Costa Mesa’s Orange Coast College and Coastline College in Fountain Valley.

Randall’s appointment as interim president came after the resignation of the former president, Tim McGrath, who resigned after receiving a no-confidence vote from the community college’s Academic Senate due to his handling of public safety incidents, according to a report in the Orange County Coast College student paper Coast Report.

Randall counts nearly 30 years of experience in higher education, including 17 years as chief instruction officer in the California Community College system.

Community Outreach

Randall says one of her first goals as president is to establish more connections between the school and the surrounding community.

“As interim president, I was hesitant to build community connections that might then be passed onto someone else,” Randall said.

Golden West has partnered with California State University, San Bernardino to offer a concurrent enrollment program allowing Golden West students to earn their Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) while earning their Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) at Golden West.

Students enrolled in this program can complete their ADN in six semesters as full-time students and go on to complete their BSN degrees with an additional six months of coursework at CSUSB, according to school officials.

The school is also seeking to connect with the local Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce and Black Chamber of Commerce to help serve its diverse student population.

Randall first joined Golden West as vice president of instruction in 2020.

She earned her bachelor’s degree from Amherst College, master’s degree from Cornell University and Juris Doctor degree from New York University School of Law.

Randall says she has always wanted to be an English professor but took a “left turn” to become a lawyer before eventually pursuing a career in higher education in her 30s.

“You know the saying: If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life and I’ve worked very few days in my life,” Randall said.

Modern Campus

Golden West recently opened its new language arts complex to the public last October.

The three-story, 65,000-square-foot building was built for $55 million and financed by state funding. It features 30 new classrooms, four group study rooms and a student resource center.

The old humanities and adjacent health sciences buildings were demolished to make way for the new project.

“We’re slowly shifting to buildings built within the last 10 years, so the campus is becoming more modern,” Randall said.

Career Readiness

Golden West aims to prepare its students for success and find jobs after graduating through two types of tuition-free classes.

The first are non-credit classes geared toward trade jobs in the automotive, security and elderly care industries.

The college also offers dual enrollment, including books and other materials, at no cost for high school students looking to gain college credits.

Every year, Golden West receives funding from the state to support students’ basic needs. Part of the funding goes to the school’s food pantry where students can shop for free groceries.

In the spring, students who are enrolled in at least six units can apply on a first-come first-serve basis to receive $2,000 to help offset the cost of rent and childcare.

“Part of my job is making sure parents and prospective students know about all of these opportunities,” Randall said.

Golden West says it has a 90% transfer rate with many students transferring to California State University, Long Beach, California State University, Fullerton and University of California, Irvine after two years.

The post Golden West College Names New President appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

After a “highly competitive” process that took two years, they winnowed it down to 12 programs that are dedicated to finding breakthrough treatments for diseases ranging from cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and vision loss, as well as prevention for other common illnesses.

They will put these 12 programs into UCI’s new Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building, a 215,000-square-foot facility under construction within the university’s growing health sciences district on the southwest side of campus.

“This is where tomorrow’s medicine is going to be born,” Steve Goldstein, UCI vice chancellor of health affairs, told the Business Journal.

The building is funded ­in part by a $30 million gift made in 2021 from Adeline and Robert Mah through their Falling Leaves Foundation. The Mahs gift was among the largest charitable gifts reported in Orange County that year; for the latest annual list of OC’s Largest Charitable Gifts.

Since the Mahs initial funding, UCI has raised an additional $10 million toward the project, according to Goldstein.

The building is set to be completed in April 2025.

$30M Gift

The Falling Leaves Foundation was established by Orange County couple Adeline Mah, who was a chief anesthesiologist at West Anaheim Community Hospital, and her husband, Robert Mah, professor emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles with two species and a genus named after him for his research on anaerobic archaebacteria.

Adeline Mah also wrote the bestselling book “Falling Leaves,” about growing up in China.

“They know as scientists and clinicians the impact their gift can make,” Goldstein said.
UCI says the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building will be among one of the largest interdisciplinary research hubs on the West Coast.

While there are similar sized facilities focused on biomedical research at other universities, “none of them have UCI’s singular focus on project-driven medical innovation,” UCI officials said.

The building will be the newest addition to the school’s health sciences district, joining the Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing and Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences, made possible by a $200 million gift from Susan and Henry Samueli in 2017—still the largest gift in UCI’s history.

Just a mile away is the $1.3 billion UCI Health-Irvine complex that is being built along Jamboree Road.

One Health

Goldstein said healthcare research thrives when “brilliant minds are together, not in silos.”

The Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building is an embodiment of UCI’s One Health model which emphasizes collaboration across different health disciplines, he said.

Each program will be led by UCI faculty members from the college of health and sciences.
Moving forward, Goldstein said one of his primary goals is continuing to raise more funds for the project, stressing the importance of stable funding to the success of research.

“Novel ideas often require donors to help launch them to get the basic data that then allows external funders to put resources in,” Goldstein said.

Vaccine Research

One of the 12 programs will be spearheaded by Philip Felgner, professor of physiology and biophysics and director of the Vaccine Research and Development Center.

Felgner in 2021 received the Global Impact Award at the Business Journal’s Innovator of the Year Awards.

He’s been tapped to lead the vaccines and emerging infectious diseases program and says the new building will “fill a tremendous gap on campus.”

“We were having difficulty recruiting young scientists because we didn’t have the laboratory space until now,” Felgner told the Business Journal.

Felgner has spent the last 20 years studying vaccines at UCI. Most notably, his work helped contribute to the commercial development of COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna.

He said his lab in Palo Alto developed some the earliest liquid nanoparticle vaccine science 40 years ago, and now he’s seeing the results of his work.

The science is being used to not only better vaccine development but also other areas such as gene therapy and cancer.

Felgner has already collaborated with another program director, Krzysztof Palczewski, professor of ophthalmology and director of the Center for Translational Vision Research at UCI’s Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, who will oversee the translational vision research and genome editing research programs.

Palczewski has gained worldwide fame in ophthalmology for research on how to cure blindness. In 2022, he earned a Business Journal Innovator of the Year Award.
Both Felgner and Palczewski’s labs are currently working together to correct the genetic causes for blindness.

Vaccine research is shifting focuses now onto pandemic preparedness, Felgner said.
Felgner says he is in talks with Zhang Yongzhen, the scientist who first identified the COVID-19 virus, to potentially join or be a visiting scientist at the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building.

The 12 Research Programs Seeking to Cure Diseases

The Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building, a 215,000-square-foot facility under construction within University of California, Irvine’s growing health sciences district, aims to tackle the following diseases, with research being led by the following scientists:

• Cancer Metabolism, Cellular Immuno-Oncology and Precision Oncology Research
Programs; Richard Van Etten
• Center for Neural Circuit Mapping Translational Neuroscience Program;
Xiangmin Xu
• Center for Translational Vision Research; Krzysztof Palczewski
• Environmental and Occupational Toxicology and Disease Program Laboratory;
Andrea De Vizcaya Ruiz
• Epilepsy Research Center; Robert Hunt
• Genome Editing Research Program; Krzysztof Palczewski
• Interdisciplinary Skin Science Program; Kristen Kelly
• Molecular Innovation Center; Andrej Luptak
• Neurodegenerative Disease and Neurotherapeutics Collaboratory; Albert La
Spada
• Precision Omics Collaboratory; Leslie Thompson
• Program in Vaccines and Emerging Infectious Diseases; Philip Felgner
• Stem Cell Neuroscience Research Program; Aileen Anderson

The post New UCI Facility to Research Tomorrow’s Medicine appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

This week’s Business Journal list of Largest Charitable Gifts list highlights 82 donations valued at $1 million or more directed toward OC-based groups last year.

On a combined basis, those gifts totaled nearly $429 million, down 9% from the year prior.
In 2023, there were eight gifts of $10 million or more, and three of $50 million or more.

No. 1 Gift

Topping the list is Panda Express founders Peggy and Andrew Cherng, who emigrated from Burma, which nowadays is called Myanmar.

The couple’s Panda Charitable Family Foundation donated $100 million to the City of Hope Orange County, the largest-ever gift in the cancer hospital’s century-long history.

Funds from the gift will be directed both to City of Hope’s Duarte base and its expanding campus in Irvine.

The funding deal, announced in September, helped create the Cherng Family Center for Integrative Oncology at City of Hope, a program focused on providing holistic therapies for cancer patients.

“With this transformative gift we’re able to accelerate this program that we’ve established even faster,” Edward Kim, physician-in-chief of City of Hope Orange County, told the Business Journal.

The oncology program has plans to expand its clinical services outside of Orange County to its other campuses in Chicago, Atlanta and Phoenix, according to Richard Lee, the Cherng Family Director’s Chair for the center.

Lee said the partnership came about at the “right place and right time” as City of Hope begins to establish itself as a leader in integrative oncology.

He said the oncology program is conducting multiple clinical trials and received a more than $3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to study the potential harms and benefits of cannabis use in myeloma patients.

Hoag Backers

Hospitals remained top of mind for many notable donors last year.

Hoag Hospital Foundation received the second-largest gift on the list, tied with the University of California, Irvine, for $50 million from longtime Newport Beach philanthropist Richard H. Pickup to establish the Richard H. Pickup Center for Brain Health.

“Hoag is making great strides in the understanding of brain health and Alzheimer’s disease,” Pickup, who has backed other Hoag initiatives over the years, said in a statement.

Top-Tier Education

Six of the 10 largest gifts went to universities in the area, including UCI and Chapman University.

For the third straight year, UCI led the donor list, receiving 17 donations of $1 million or more, totaling $114 million.

The school received $50 million from the Samueli Foundation to launch three new research institutes under the banner of “Engineering+” for the Henry Samueli School of Engineering.
“Susan and Henry Samueli’s generous gift will establish the Engineering+ research institutes, empowering multidisciplinary teams to address key global challenges in health, society and the environment,” Magnus Egerstedt, dean of the school of engineering, told the Business Journal.

The Samuelis’ donation will also help establish the Office of Inreach, which will be dedicated to supporting the well-being, academic success and career development of undergraduate students.

Chapman received the second greatest number of gifts in 2023: 14 for a total of $48 million, including a $10 million gift from Julie and George Argyros to elevate Chapman’s business school to the Argyros College of Business and Economics.

“The incredible generosity of our donors helps ensure that Chapman continues its momentum as a top-tier university committed to academic excellence,” Chapman President Daniele Struppa told the Business Journal.

Chapman has made significant headway in its Inspire fundraising campaign, which has a goal of raising $500 million by 2028. It has raised $368 million to date, according to the school’s top officials.

The post OC Colleges, Hospitals See Focus of 2023 Donations appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.