SALINAS >> Driven by a vision to create a regional event and education hub, the Hartnell College Foundation has agreed to purchase the CSUMB Salinas City Center in downtown Salinas from Cal State Monterey Bay. The National Steinbeck Center and the Foundation will both assume ownership of the building under this deal.

The two schools, accompanied by community partners, held a press conference Wednesday morning announcing the deal. Escrow on the building is expected to close between July 15-30. The Foundation is confident the sale will close by the deadline, according to executive director Jackie Cruz.

“This transition marks our continued commitment to increasing educational access for residents of the Salinas Valley,” said Michael Gutierrez, superintendent and president of the Hartnell Community College District. “As part of our expanding access, One Main Street will support continuing education, workforce training, short-term learning and entrepreneurship tailored to the region’s economic needs.”

The Foundation is a nonprofit corporation which helps the community college district raise funds and supports various student programs.

Many initiatives will be headquartered in the building. Hartnell’s K-12 STEAM (science, technology, engineering and math) programs will call the building home. Nearly 10,000 local youth engage in the robotics, coding, science and arts programs annually. Bright Futures Monterey County, a community partnership focused on preparing kids for school and beyond, will also be headquartered in the building.

“We hope to contribute significantly to the vibrancy of the community,” said Cruz. In the future, the Foundation envisions a biotech lab within the building, allowing access for locals to “innovate with tools and technologies only found in larger cities.”

Home to the National Steinbeck Center, the building will be renamed One Main Street while the center continues to operate within the building and expand its youth programming, according to a news release.

“As with any good book, there are many chapters that move the story along,” said National Steinbeck Center Board President Steve Emerson. “Today, we open a new chapter. We turn the page and move forward. This new chapter also helps change the economic outlook for the National Steinbeck Center, with a new set of synergies and programs that will help revitalize this building and have a greater impact on the local, regional and worldwide communities that we serve.”

The building purchase was funded by Taylor Farms, the Harden Foundation, the D’Arrigo Charitable Trust and the Hartnell College Foundation Board. The final details and purchase price of the building will be made public once escrow closes.

Proceeds from the sale will go toward supporting future student housing projects, said CSUMB President Vanya Quiñones in an Instagram post.

CSUMB’s existing relationship with Hartnell, as well as aligned visions for the future of the local workforce, made Hartnell the obvious choice for the transfer of ownership, said Quiñones Wednesday.

The university purchased the building and museum in 2015 for $3 million, planning on utilizing the building to develop a bigger presence in Salinas. CSUMB confirmed it was selling the building in November and turned down multiple offers that it said didn’t align with its vision for the building.

“Hartnell’s mission, its values and its commitment to the community match CSUMB’s exactly,” said Alan Fisher, CSUMB vice president for administration and finance/CFO. “We worked closely to come to terms that would benefit both of our institutions and the community at large.”

Over the years, CSUMB leadership realized the Center hadn’t yet reached its full potential, said Quiñones.

“We were underutilizing this space and that was affecting the flow of people in the city and the possibilities and it was just a programmatic shift that we had,” said Quiñones. “I think that the next chapter of this building is a chapter of hope, a chapter of development, a chapter of ensuring the most important thing, which is our youth, has the potential to be educated and move Salinas forward.”