The city of Davis is being asked to vacate a dead-end portion of Faraday Avenue to make a larger parcel for the development of a 107,612-square-foot, one-story building for an advanced manufacturing or biotech user.
Some 7.81 acres of undeveloped property at 3808 Faraday Ave. is owned by Pac West Diversified LP, an affiliate of Sacramento-based development company Buzz Oates.
A development team that includes Pac West, Buzz Oates and West Sacramento-based Ramco Properties LP is planning to construct the building on speculation or with a potential "tenant we cannot identify," said Dan Ramos, a vice president with Ramco.
Buzz Oates submitted its plans for the building site at 3808 Faraday Ave. to the city last summer.
The project site is across the street from 3805 Faraday Ave., a 71,000-square-foot existing office building that Pac West leased last year to TechnipFMC Plc.
TechnipFMC (NYSE: FTI) subsidiary Schilling Robotics makes undersea robots in a 120,000-square-foot space on Second Street in Davis, and it has been trying to expand.
The city cannot identify the potential user for the new building, but one of the candidates is a company already in the city, said Eric Lee, senior planner with the city.
One of the features of the new building is a 30-foot-deep testing pool, Lee said.
When Technip was exploring an expansion site for Schilling in West Sacramento in 2019, one of the features it sought was a deep testing pool.
Technip representatives couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
If the city agrees to vacate the end portion of Faraday Avenue, it would add about a half acre to the site, making it a total of 8.33 acres. That land would be used for parking or landscaping, Lee said.
The Davis Planning Commission approved the building last week. The Davis City Council would have to approve vacating the end of Faraday Avenue, which could be on an agenda in the coming weeks, Lee said. The project is contingent on the city vacating the end portion of Faraday Avenue, according to a city staff report.
In 2012, FMC Technologies Inc. of Houston acquired Davis-based Schilling Robotics LLC to form Schilling FMC. In 2017, FMC Technologies merged with Technip of Paris, creating the London-based TechnipFMC.
Schilling Robotics started in 1985. Its remote underwater robots and mechanical arms are used for deep-sea underwater work, oil exploration and drilling.
This story has been updated to clarify that Pac West leased a Faraday Avenue building to TechnipFMC Plc.
