History of the Property

Built in 1980, this 18.5 acre site was built as a silicon wafer manufacturing plant and first used by Synertech, then AT&T, and then Silicon Systems, which was eventually acquired by Texas Instruments. Old timers refer to it as the "T.I. Building". 

Once the plant shut down, the property was on the market for years before UCSC purchased it in 2004 for $5M with $6.5M given to UCSC by TI as a charitable contribution. The total site is 18.5 acres with 243,000 gross square feet and 191,000 assignable square feet.

Buildings A and B were slightly remodeled, and administrative staff began to occupy the building in September, 2005.  Building C was modified for the first materials labs in 2010 timeframe. The Administrative Staff moved to Scotts Valley Enterprise Center (SVEC) in 2017 and the facility is now under additional developments as a science and research campus. 

The nearby pond was created to float logs for the the huge San Vicente Lumber Company around 1905. The on-site mill produced approximately 400 million board feet of lumber, most of it destined to rebuild San Francisco after the big quake and fire. The trees were harvested from the San Vincente drainage, above the Swanton/Davenport area. The company shut down in 1923, and afterwards the site was used to grow begonias by the Antonelli Brothers. The pond, once known as Moore Creek Lake and Mill Lake, became Antonelli Pond. It has been gradually shrinking due to silt ever since.

The Land Trust of Santa Cruz County maintains the pond property. For more information visit their website here.