UCLA has been on a bit of an acquisitions bid, it's latest move stepping directly in front of a project five years in the making to create a 580K SF office campus in Los Angeles for Google.
We're not sure how this is going to end but stepping on may turn out to be more accurate, since the university has not indicated whether it plans to let that project be completed.
An environmental notice, which often is the first hint of significant transactions in California, was published this week disclosing that UCLA is acquiring the former Westside Pavilion shopping mall site for an undisclosed sum from Hudson Pacific Properties and Macerich, according to a report in Urbanize L.A.
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The acquisition includes the eastern half of the mall, located at 10800-10830 W. Pico Boulevard, which already has been gutted and converted into office space, and the unchanged western portion of the shuttered shopping mall, located at 10850 W. Pico Boulevard.
Almost five years ago, Hudson Pacific announced a deal to transform the closed shopping mall into an office campus for Google. UCLA appears to be playing its cards close to the vest on what it's plans are for the converted office space.
"The University will make no decision to undertake further development until it has complied with CEQA and an overall site development plan has been approved," the notice published this week said, according to the report.
CEQA is California's environmental impact assessment, which is required before any significant redevelopment can take place.
UCLA has made two other significant acquisitions in the past two years, but both of those purchases were education related.
In June, the university acquired the historic Trust Building in Downtown Los Angeles, announcing plans to redevelop the 334K SF property as a satellite campus.
The 11-story Trust Building, located at 433 S. Spring Street in the city's Historic Core, is a landmark dating back to 1928. The building recently underwent a restoration by Rising Realty Partners, including a striking polychromatic tile ceiling in the building's entrance vestibule.
In a statement, Gene Block, UCLA's chancellor, said the acquisition "will further intertwine UCLA and L.A., helping us deepen the impact of our teaching, research and public service mission."
The Trust Building will be used to house classrooms and offices as part of a satellite campus called UCLA Downtown, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
In September 2022, UCLA purchased for $80M two large properties owned by Marymount California University, a small Catholic institution in Rancho Palo Verdes that shut down during the summer of 2022.
UCLA's 419-acre Westwood footprint is the smallest among UC's nine undergraduate campuses. Satellite campuses are a strategy UCLA is embracing to add about 3,000 more undergraduates and 350 more graduate students by 2030, the L.A. Times reported.
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