Donor center to move to Village
By Daily Bruin Staff
Nov. 12, 2002 9:00 p.m.
UCLA’s Blood and Platelet Center is being forced out of
its current location in the UCLA Medical Plaza and is looking to
move into Westwood Village.
But for the center, searching for a new home in an area full of
retail businesses and restaurants hasn’t been the easiest
process and after six months, it has yet to find a location.
The UCLA Surgery Center is expanding into the Blood and Platelet
Center’s current location, said Barbara Willihan, nursing
supervisor at the Blood and Platelet Center. Currently, the center
is looking at two available buildings on Gayley Avenue.
Willihan said the center has already placed several bids in the
village, but one was too late, and the others were rejected.
One of the buildings it tried to acquire was the one vacated by
Beyond the Beach, right in the heart of the Village. Willihan said
she thinks the Westwood businesses want to keep the area occupied
by restaurants and clothing stores.
A major problem in the search is that the Blood and Platelet
Center demands a fairly large building. Willihan said the center
“requires a minimum of 7,000 square feet.”Â
“We will need about 1,000 to 2,000 square feet just for
supplies,” she said.Â
Brad Erickson, director of campus service enterprises, said the
difficulty in finding an appropriate building is “a supply
and demand issue.”
The fact is, there are not many buildings of that size in the
Village.
The center has also been confronted by Westwood retailers who
are less than eager to welcome the nonprofit business into the
Village, Willihan said.
Westwood is an area predominantly dedicated to food and
shopping. Village store owners welcome businesses that will help
draw customers into their own stores, but are sometimes opposed to
businesses such as dentists, post offices, and medical offices,
which do not attract customers, said Westwood business and real
estate consultant, Steve Sann.
“A blood donation center that is closed at 5 or 6 p.m.
deadens retail environment,” he said. “You just
don’t see a blood donor center on the Third Street
Promenade.”
Establishments such as a donor center do not promote business
for other vendors and they will take away from the already limited
parking in Westwood, he added.
“We need more retail. That type of store will not benefit
anyone,” said Phillip Gabriel, owner of Scrubs Unlimited, and
a member of Westwood’s Business Improvement District.
Other store owners, like Michael Kohan, owner of Michael K.
Jeweler, expressed feelings that UCLA is trying to dominate the
village and limit the business of Westwood merchants.
“Enough is enough. UCLA is taking over too much of
Westwood, they killed Westwood already by having the campus store.
We need retail stores,” Kohan said.
Michael Dean of Imports Showroom said the Village needs to be
kept “a retail neighborhood.”
Dean said he fears placing a Blood Donor Center in Westwood will
bring in transients looking to market their blood.
Erickson wished to dispel the belief that homeless people will
use the Blood Donor Center to market their blood, saying the center
is not a “blood for hire operation,” and the main
donors are UCLA students and faculty.
The quest for a new building has led UCLA Real Estate to Gayley
Avenue, which has a different makeup than the inner Village.
Gayley’s building tenants are not exclusively retail. The
1,000 block, for example, is already home to the Westwood
Professional Building and California Cryobank.
Steve Broder, director of California Cryobank said the Gayley
strip was a good place for the Blood Donor Center.
“I see no downside to it,” he said.
UCLA Real Estate asked that the two buildings they are looking
at not be specifically identified, fearing that it might hurt its
ability to close a deal.
But both buildings back up to southwest campus and lot 32.
Erickson said one main criterion of the new location is proximity
to campus. Either of the two buildings would be near a lot that
would provide parking for potential donors.
Some students support the relocation. Fourth-year political
science student, Toby Lees, said, “I think (moving the Donor
Center into the village) is a phenomenal idea.”
Lees, who has used the current Blood and Platelet center many
times, finds its location inconvenient.
His sentiment was shared by Carrie Hague, a second-year
undeclared student.
When asked how she felt about relocating the Blood Donor Center,
Hague said, “It would be a good thing because it will be more
in the community. That will help get more people to donate
blood.”
