Lawrence Berkeley Lab announced today, Jan. 23, that it has ruled out sites in Albany, Berkeley and elsewhere and chosen the Richmond Field Station near El Cerrito for its new satellite campus.

The UC-owned Richmond Field Station, located just over a mile west of El Cerrito City Hall, was the option endorsed by the El Cerrito City Council nearly a year ago, on Feb. 22.

"Locating this project in Richmond would be a catalyst for economic development around innovations in green technology that generate high quality jobs and meet environmental goals," said a letter at the time from then Mayor Ann Cheng to the lab.

Current El Cerrito Mayor Bill Jones said the Richmond selection "should provide opportunities for housing, employment and commerce in the general area" and that he's hopeful of local construction jobs and increased demand for housing in El Cerrito as well. The new campus also "should add to a growing technological business community that has occurred in the surrounding areas," he said in an email.

Councilwoman Cheng said she is "very pleased" with the decision.

"El Cerrito certainly will benefit from new people that will naturally make use of our great, affordable shops and quality services," she said in an email. "I believe our job is to continue to make it easier and safer for these families to access our businesses as they travel between work and home.  By doing so we also improve our own safer and cleaner access to the Bay and surrounding open space treasures."

The lab's announcement came as a disappointment to several communities that had been competing for the new facility. Last year, the lab narrowed the candidates down to six finalists:

• Golden Gate Fields, spanning the cities of Berkeley and Albany;
• Alameda Point, in the city of Alameda;
• Berkeley Aquatic Park West, located in West Berkeley;
• Brooklyn Basin, located in Oakland;
• Emeryville/Berkeley, (includes properties currently occupied by the Lab in Emeryville and West Berkeley);
• Richmond Field Station, a site currently owned by the University of California.

The lab's statement today said the 152-acre Richmond site "presents the best opportunity to solve the Lab’s pressing space problems while allowing for long term growth and maintaining the 80 year tradition of close cooperation with the UC Berkeley Campus."

El Cerrito's redevelopment manager, Lori Treviño, said the decision provides an opportunity for El Cerrito to capitalize on the increased traffic flowing between Berkeley and Richmond, particularly if the lab has commuters and shuttles using the city's del Norte BART station, a chief focus of city development efforts.

Putting the lab campus in Richmond could also strengthen El Cerrito's role in the East Bay Green Corridor, a partnership of local cities, UC Berkeley and the Berkeley lab to promote local clean tech research and start-ups, Treviño said.

Mayor Jones said "the project fits the objectives of the East Bay cities corridor that are promoting sustainability and 'green' business development." El Cerrito endorses "'green' businesses as a new, growing viable business sector worthy of public support," he said.

El Cerrito Councilwoman Rebecca Benassini offered "congratulations" to Richmond, adding: "UC's research campuses have a track record of spurring spin-off companies from its research activities, so expanding UC's presence near El Cerrito can lead to both new UC-jobs and private sector jobs.  While UC had many good options for the location of the lab, it's great for El Cerrito that they have selected a site only a few miles from our city."

Sharing the enthusiasm was Councilwoman Janet Abelson. "I am quite excited about the selection of Richmond Field Station," she said. "This will be a real win for all of West County, including El Cerrito."

Competition for the satellite campus has been prompted by the potential for stimulating local economic activity and attracting business ventures, particularly those in the high-tech and scientific fields.

“Each city, community, and their developer partners presented extremely thoughtful and well-formulated proposals for us to consider, for which we are deeply grateful,” Berkeley Lab Director Paul Alivisatos said in a prepared statement released today. ”The communities of Albany, Alameda, Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland and Richmond have been true partners in this process. While we can only pick one site, we hope that the new relationships we’ve made will continue to help us foster excitement in science. The enthusiasm is wonderful affirmation of the desire of the entire East Bay to be part of developing scientific solutions to some of the greatest challenges facing our society.”

The reason for building a satellite campus is to consolidate programs in spaces that the lab currently leases throughout the Bay Area and to save some money, according the lab.

Most of Berkeley Lab’s 4,200 employees work at its main site in the hills above the UC Berkeley campus, but about 20 percent work in leased facilities around the East Bay, including at the Joint BioEnergy Institute in Emeryville, the Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, and the Lab's life science facilities in Berkeley.

The lab had earlier planned to make the selection last year but later announced that it would wait until early this year. Alivisatos said at the time that lab officials had been "overwhelmed by the positive and extremely thoughtful responses from the communities of Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland and Richmond."