Beverly Hills billionaires give UC Davis $50 million to build agricultural research hub
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Photo: Courtesy of The University of California
A major donor to The University of California’s groundbreaking new Agricultural Research Alliance (ARA) hopes to build a $500 million agricultural research center on his 10-acre campus in Beverly Hills.
Karan Arora, who runs a New York-based investment firm, pledged $100 million to the university last year to establish the new center, which is intended to create a “knowledge-based commercial agricultural industry.”
“We’re in the process now of finding the land,” he said. “The center is going to be very substantial. It will require a lot of space.”
The new Agricultural Research Alliance was formed to build the center with $45 million in state bonds, the state budget for which is now guaranteed by private donors. The new university center would be part of a $125 million initiative to create a “unified commercial agricultural research park” on the site.
But Arora doesn’t want California to give him any more money. In lieu of new state bonds, he would like to persuade UC administrators to fund the ARA center with tuition dollars.
The site is located on land Arora owns on the southern edge of a city park in southern Beverly Hills. He would like to expand the 60-acre park to accommodate a $500 million research complex.
“I have a lot of ideas about how to use the land,” Arora told The Daily he would like to develop a 300-acre “agricultural research park.”
According to a press release by Arora’s fund, the ARA center would be “a world-class, comprehensive and integrated agricultural research and development resource.” The release notes that by “comprehensive�
