With great excitement, The Community Vision launched the Community Vision Central Valley Community Facilities Challenge on February 8, 2012 at California State University Fresno (FSU). The challenge, in partnership with the university, is an innovative, collaborative program that will allow FSU students to apply their skills to prepare a real estate feasibility analysis for a proposed community facility real estate project to benefit a low-income community in Fresno County.
To kick-off the Challenge, Community Vision’s Director of Real Estate Consulting Josh Simon provided the students with a workshop on Facility Strategic Planning. The students learned how to assess the space needs of a program, the community needs, and the financial alternatives for a community facility. After the workshop Provost William Covino and FSU President, Dr. John D. Welty gave words of encouragements to the students and commended their involvement in the community-based project.
“We are very excited about our first collaborative project with the students at Fresno State” says Mary A. Rogier, President of Community Vision. This is a unique opportunity for students to get hands-on experience and be part of a real life project.”
The project includes a financial analysis, preliminary design concepts, engineering review, construction schedule, and other relevant components. Each team, consisting of between 6-8 students from the Lyles College of Engineering; the Craig School of Business; and the Department of Art and Design, will partner with a Community Based Organization or municipality to develop a proposal for a community facility to serve low-income communities in the Central Valley. The student teams will begin their work February 22 and will present their analysis before a panel of judges on April 18. Community Vision will award a $5,000 predevelopment grant and consulting services to the winning proposal.
