Meeting with Vice President of Land, Buildings and Real Estate (LBRE) Robert Reidy

On November 9, 2009 I met with Vice President of Land, Buildings and Real Estate (LBRE) Robert Reidy. VP Reidy attended Cal Poly and majored in mechanical and environmental engineering. He has been at Stanford for twelve years. VP Reidy at a high level oversees six main areas: land use, real estate, capital planning, project management,campus planning and design and operations. He has five direct reports, one in each of the areas of operations and project management, land use, real estate, finance, and contract negotiations. VP Reidy spends 30% of his time on land use, 20% on real estate, 30% on capital projects, 10% on capital planning, and 10% on operations.

The area of land use entails managing the campuses 8,200 contiguous acres which is broadly broken up into three buckets: academic (core campus, SLAC, and the medical center), commercial lands which generate income to further the University’s core mission, and academic reserves such as agricultural reserves. Capital planning is a six month process with a 10 year look ahead that happens every year and comes up with a 3 year plan and a 1 year budget. In the process, LBRE reaches out to all schools and departments and determines what their current capital use and square foot usage is. Each school/department then submits a list of projects they would like to develop to further their mission and LBRE analyzes the projects to determine if they are financially feasible and a priority. LBRE then makes recommendations to the Provost who ultimately decides which projects will be submitted to the Trustees for approval to develop. Project management, campus planning and design entails implementation of the capital plan.