This post was updated Jan 22 at 10:51 p.m.

SAN FRANCISCO – A UC Board of Regents committee recommended creating three UCLA health care facilities within a newly acquired building.

The board is holding its bimonthly meeting Wednesday to Thursday at UC San Francisco. Its finance and capital strategies committee unanimously voted to allocate $6.5 million for the preliminary planning and design phase of the project, with funding from UCLA Health’s hospital reserves.

The building is located at 5210 Pacific Concourse Dr., near the Los Angeles International Airport.

The committee meeting was delayed after people wearing shirts branded with the logo of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 – which represents patient care, service and skilled craft workers across the UC – stood up and chanted, “Affordable housing now,” and, “Contract now,” for around five minutes. UCPD officers began escorting all the protesters of the union out of the room before the board meeting began. 

The building expansion introduced by the committee would include a new sports medicine institute, community fill pharmacy and a specialty pharmacy. It would also house a relocation of the UCLA Clinical Microbiology Laboratory.

The 170,000-square-foot, two-story building was purchased in October 2024 and features modern infrastructure suitable for a range of laboratory and clinical uses, according to the committee proposal. The renovations are intended to increase patient care capacity and improve access to specialized health care services, according to the item.

The sports medicine institute will provide comprehensive musculoskeletal services, including advanced imaging, outpatient clinics, rehabilitation and surgical care. The facility aims to expand UCLA Health’s orthopedic capabilities and ease demand at UCLA’s Santa Monica and Ronald Reagan Medical Centers, according to the item.

The pharmacy project will include a community fill pharmacy to handle standard prescription fulfillment for patients and employees and a specialty pharmacy within it to focus on more complex treatments, according to the item.

The full renovation project is expected to last approximately 37 months, and environmental reviews will be completed before presenting the final scope and budget this summer, according to the item.

This new project is part of a broader strategy to expand health care offerings and meet increasing demand for specialized medical services in Southern California, according to the item.

Regents did not ask questions about the item before the committee voted.