UCLA set to acquire former Westside Pavilion mall
Royce Hall is pictured. The former Westside Pavilion mall, which is set to be acquired by UCLA, was originally planned as an office campus for Google. (Daily Bruin file photo)
By Catherine Hamilton
Dec. 28, 2023 6:23 p.m.
This post was updated Jan. 9 at 9:36 p.m.
UCLA acquired the former Westside Pavilion mall Dec. 27 with plans to make it into the UCLA Research Park.
The former mall space, which is two miles from the UCLA campus, will host the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy at UCLA and the UCLA Center for Quantum Science and Engineering, according to a campuswide email sent Wednesday by Chancellor Gene Block.
In January 2019, developer Hudson Pacific Properties and real estate investment trust company Macerich announced Google would be leasing the former mall, which is located on West Pico Boulevard, to convert the space into an office campus for the company. The 14-year lease of the 584,000-square-foot office campus was planned to begin after the renovation of the building, according to Macerich.
However, according to an environmental notice published Dec. 27, the property is now being acquired by UCLA.
According to the Dec. 27 email, UCLA was able to acquire the 700,000-square-foot space – including the attached multiplex theater – partially through an intended $500 million investment from the state of California, with $200 million already allocated, to fund the immunology and immunotherapy institute. Google helped with and supported UCLA’s acquisition of the property, according to the email.
“I have the greatest confidence that the seeds we are planting and investing in today will become great trees,” Block said in the email. “In the decades to come, these acquisitions will solidify UCLA’s place as an institution of unequaled positive impact.”
The email also said the quantum center and the immunology and immunotherapy institute will allow students, early-stage faculty and others at UCLA the opportunity to conduct unparalleled research and participate in training opportunities in an interdisciplinary environment.
The university has also acquired two other sites over the past 15 months: the Trust Building in downtown Los Angeles and the former Marymount California University campus in Rancho Palos Verdes.
“UCLA loves Los Angeles,” said Mary Osako, vice chancellor for strategic communications, in an emailed statement. “We are always looking for ways to deepen our engagement across this great city.”
