After a lengthy proposal process which saw six different cities vying to become home to a new lab campus, Lawrence Berkeley Labs announced today that they've selected a site in Richmond and a proposal by the University of California and SKS Investments which uses a piece of bayside land known as the Richmond Field Station, owned by the UC. The plan calls for 2 million square feet of new lab space, and could bring in thousands of new jobs to the economically depressed city.
The proposal beat out five others which proposed various other sites including the Brooklyn Basin in Oakland, the Alameda Point naval base in Alameda, and the Berkeley Aquatic Park.
The Richmond proposal was considered a front-runner because the University already owned the land, but the lab and university are separate entities.
The decision comes after months of deliberation in which all these East Bay cities were hoping to win.
