The University of California, Los Angeles is moving deeper into the adaptive reuse game with redevelopment plans for a former shopping mall in West Los Angeles. 

A newly released environmental study outlines the university’s plans for UCLA Research Park, which would transform the shuttered Westside Pavilion at 10800 and 10850 West Pico Boulevard into an 800,000-square-foot research and innovation campus, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

The project will combine reuse of the former mall structure with new construction, carving out 271,000 square feet of wet and dry labs, 214,000 square feet of office space, 258,700 square feet for common areas and back-of-house functions, 52,400 square feet of meeting areas, 14,700 square feet of food service areas and more than 29,000 square feet of open space and outdoor amenities. The site spans more than 9 acres and would boast 1,100 parking spaces.

The campus is already landing marquee tenants. The California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy — backed in part by a $120 million donation from orthopedic surgeon Dr. Gary Michelson and his wife Alya — is expected to occupy roughly half of the research area. UCLA’s Quantum Innovation Hub, part of the broader SoCal Quantum Alliance that includes the University of Southern California, the California Institute of Technology, Boeing and IBM, will initially take 40,000 square feet with room to expand significantly. UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine is also slated for space at the property alongside additional university and private-sector users.

Most of the work will involve retrofitting the existing mall buildings, though UCLA also plans to add a new lobby pavilion, conference center, expanded loading facilities and redesigned public plazas. Flad Architects is leading the design, with landscape architecture by OBJ.

Construction and occupancy are expected to roll out in phases between late 2027 and 2035. 

UCLA acquired the former Westside Pavilion mall in 2023 from Hudson Pacific Properties, which previously pitched the mall as an office campus for Google before UCLA stepped in. 

Other portions of the former retail complex have already been redeveloped into housing and mixed-use projects as the once-struggling mall continues its piecemeal reinvention. The UCLA Research Park is one part of the university’s broader expansion in the region in recent years following the acquisition of the Trust Building in downtown Los Angeles and the former Marymount California University campus in Rancho Palos Verdes.— Chris Malone Méndez

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Institutional Property Advisors (IPA), a division of Marcus & Millichap, CLOSED the sale of Axiom Westwood, a four-building, 153-unit student housing portfolio adjacent to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the city’s Westwood neighborhood. The transaction is the largest property by unit count to sell in Westwood since 2020, according to IPA. The sale price was $62.6 million.

The portfolio was built between 1962 and 1967. “The previous ownership invested significant capital from 2015 onward to transform Axiom Westwood into a turnkey asset,” said Kevin Green, IPA executive managing director investments. “The buyer has the opportunity to focus on high return-on-investment strategic enhancements and operational improvements that can capture unrealized income.”

Green, Joseph Grabiec and Gregory Harris of IPA represented seller Raintree Partners and procured the buyer, a private multifamily investor. “Westwood continues to be one of the most supply-constrained markets in Los Angeles,” said Grabiec. “Despite UCLA’s plans to increase overall enrollment over 6% by 2030, there are only 545 new beds scheduled to be delivered in the next three years.”

Located at 415 Gayley Ave., 411 Kelton Ave., 555 Kelton Ave. and 555 Levering Ave., the buildings are within walking distance of popular Westwood Village destinations. The 415 Gayley and 411 Kelton buildings are adjacent to the UCLA campus, while 555 Levering and 555 Kelton are two blocks away.

Hear from top executives from BGO, Blackstone, Cushman & Wakefield, Kennedy Wilson and CBRE as they break down strategy, capital flows, and where the market is headed on May 28 at Connect LA. Join the conversation shaping LA CRE—register now: www.connectla26.com

The University of California, Los Angeles has gotten the go-ahead to build a new high-rise dormitory in Westwood. 

The Regents of the University of California approved UCLA’s project calling for the construction of a 19-story, approximately 310,000-square-foot tower at 901 Levering Avenue, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. The building would rise approximately 238 feet and include 148 units in a mix of one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom layouts, providing beds for up to 1,150 students. 

The development site currently houses five buildings containing 42 units, which UCLA acquired last year. The Mithun-designed structures would be demolished to make way for the dorm tower. 

Construction on the $351 million project could start as early as this year and wrap up by 2030, according to an environmental study cited by Urbanize. 

The tower at 901 Levering Terrace would be the tallest of UCLA’s student housing projects built in recent years. The Levering Place apartments next door at 885 Levering Avenue are 10 stories tall, and a tower across the street at 900 Weyburn Place rises 17 stories. UCLA is also under construction on another residential building for 545 students at 565 Gayley Avenue. 

Those efforts might not be enough to keep up with the need for beds. Last year, the university announced that it would be squeezing more students into smaller units for the 2025-2026 school year, the Daily Bruin reported. The school said a portion of the university’s four-bedroom apartments, which currently house eight students, would turn into 10-person units, while some two-bedroom university apartments would transition into eight-person apartments.

“Local housing policies traditionally are very hard to move, and the fact that UCLA has done this could easily give the city an excuse not to do anything,” Michael Manville, a professor and chair of the Department of Urban Planning at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, told the Daily Bruin. “But the broader question is the entire Westwood and West L.A. area is just an extremely expensive place. It’s good that (UCLA is) taking the step, but it would be better if the city did do something alongside UCLA to make it easier to build new housing and make things cheaper for students.”

It’s not just UCLA itself that’s building residences to meet housing demand in Westwood. Private developers have also gotten in on the construction rush, especially as more students gravitate toward private options amid the university housing crunch. 

M&A Real Estate Partners is nearing completion on The Hive, a six-story building at 535-539 Glenrock Avenue boasting 18 four- and five-bedroom apartments, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. Landmark Properties is under construction on an apartment building at 10915 Strathmore Drive; the Georgia-based firm also has plans for a bigger 12-story building at 505 Landfair Avenue. Locally based Uncommon Developers, meanwhile, is looking to build a 12-story tower at 11207 Strathmore Drive. — Chris Malone Méndez

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Newmark completed the $38.2-million sale of 10918-10926 Le Conte Avenue, a 1.16-acre land site with a 9,647-square-foot office building in Westwood. Newmark executive managing director Ryan Plummer and WESTMAC EVPs Willa McNamarra Fields and Jim Burnap co-represented the seller, Le Conte Westwood Development, in the off-market transaction. The buyer was co-represented by Newmark executive managing director David Kluth and JLL EVP Aliya Coher.

The property benefits from its prime location adjacent to UCLA and Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, close to the Westwood Village retail and dining corridor and with direct access to major thoroughfares and the I-405 and I-10 freeways for connectivity throughout the Westside of Los Angeles. The buyer’s plans for the new development will be revealed in the coming months.

“An irreplaceable land site near UCLA in Westwood Village is a once-in-a-generation foothold in the heart of Los Angeles, where scarcity, walkability and enduring demand intersect,” said Plummer. “This core Los Angeles institution’s presence in Westwood is poised to deliver lasting benefits to the entire surrounding community.”

UCLA, which has been on a campaign to vastly expand student housing around its Westwood campus, is planning a new 19-story tower that 1,150 students can call home.

Housing has long been a challenge for UCLA students, who have had limited options on campus and faced a pricey housing market in Westwood and nearby neighborhoods.

In 2022, UCLA announced that it would become the first and only University of California campus to guarantee housing for four years to first-year students and two years for transfer students. The campus now touts housing as a selling point for students it hopes to attract.

“Residential housing allows us to better ensure that every student gets a good start and is therefore more likely to be successful. So we wanted to give every student an option of having four years,” UCLA’s then-Chancellor Gene Block said in 2022. “That was the dream and it’s finally coming true.”

The latest new housing complex, recently revealed in a draft environmental study, calls for a 19-story student housing building for UCLA undergraduate students at 901 Levering Ave., adjacent to the school campus.

The proposed project would provide up to 1,150 beds within a combination of one-, two-, three and primarily four-bedroom units. The cross-shaped tower designed by Seattle architecture firm Mithun would include common courtyard and terrace areas oriented toward Levering Avenue, the study said. On-site parking for residents and guests would not be provided.

Five existing university-owned apartment buildings with a total of 52 beds would be demolished to make way for the new building. Work could begin as early as next year and be completed by 2030.

“If approved, this project will replace outdated buildings with a modern, fully electric high-rise and create space for more than 1,100 Bruins,” Pete Angelis, associate vice chancellor of housing and hospitality, said in a statement. “It will also strengthen our ability to provide students with a vibrant residential experience within walking distance of classrooms, cultural venues and the future Metro D Line station.”

The 901 Levering Terrace tower would be the latest in a string of large student housing projects built by UCLA in recent years, including the 10-story Levering Place apartments next door and a 17-story tower across the street, real estate website Urbanize said. The university is working on another apartment building for 500 students on Gayley Avenue, set to be completed next September for $108 million.

UCLA’s physical footprint of 419 acres is the smallest among UC’s nine undergraduate campuses and it sits atop some of the state’s priciest real estate, near Brentwood, Bel-Air and Beverly Hills.

UCLA is also working on converting the former Westside Pavilion shopping center, two miles south of the university at Pico and Westwood boulevards into a research park that will house the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy and the UCLA Center for Quantum Science and Engineering, as well as other science and medicine programs.

The legal battle between the University of California, Los Angeles, the City of Pasadena and the Rose Bowl Operating Company continues as the school mulls potentially abandoning its lease to play football at the Rose Bowl. The school is reportedly looking to decamp to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood to take advantage of its proximity to the university campus as well as increased revenue generation opportunities with more premium seating and luxury suites. 

Neither the Rose Bowl Operating Company nor the City of Pasadena violated the Rose Bowl’s long-term lease agreement before the university began considering a move to SoFi Stadium earlier this year, Pasadena Now reported, citing a new document filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court. 

UCLA’s lease states that the school can abandon its agreement early only in the case of a “game-threatening default,” or an immediate issue that would keep the team from playing at the stadium, the Los Angeles Times reported. Under its current lease, the UCLA Bruins cannot play its home football games in another stadium in Los Angeles or Orange Counties through June 2044, according to the New York Times. 

The City of Pasadena and Rose Bowl Operating Company filed its lawsuit against UCLA in October, adding SoFi Stadium and SoFi site owner Kroenke Sports & Entertainment — to the lawsuit last month. The plaintiffs sued the Regents of the University of California to compel UCLA to honor its contract.   

A breach notice from UCLA as required under its contract could have given the City of Pasadena a chance to address any alleged deficiencies or operational concerns. The latest legal document filed describes UCLA’s purported intentions dating back to early this year and claims that the university never alleged any contractual default by the City or Rose Bowl.

“At no time has UCLA ever asserted that any ‘game-threatening default’ exists [or any default by the RBOC or the City for that matter] under the agreement or otherwise,” Jens Weiden, general manager of the Rose Bowl, says in the documents, per Pasadena Now. 

The lack of a breach claim is notable because UCLA representatives were reportedly involved in private discussions in late 2024 and early 2025, Weiden says, claiming that he became aware from multiple credible sources that UCLA was looking into an “imminent relocation” to SoFi Stadium. Soon thereafter, reports from UCLA athletics personnel indicated that the university was in talks with SoFi Stadium executives, including Kevin Demoff, president of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, over revenue-sharing models among other topics. 

At the same time, the suit says, UCLA continued with business as usual in its planning with the Rose Bowl as if their long-term agreement wasn’t going anywhere. UCLA purportedly led the Rose Bowl on as they discussed field renovations and design work for premium seating, suggesting to the city and the Rose Bowl Operating Company that UCLA would honor its lease and stay in the historic sports venue.

Part of the lease includes a dispute-resolution clause that allows a judge to pick a neutral third party during the dispute process. UCLA has filed a motion to compel the two sides to enter arbitration, but the city has yet to agree to enter into the dispute-resolution process. 

The UC Regents have asked the Los Angeles County Superior Court to halt deposition notices issued by the Rose Bowl Operating Committee as well as the discovery process until the court hears UCLA’s motion to compel arbitration next month, Pasadena Now reported. The Rose Bowl Operating Committee sent deposition notices for UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond, vice chancellor and CFO Stephen Agostini and deputy athletics director and chief revenue officer Daniel Cruz. 

“The court should quash plaintiffs’ deposition notices and issue a protective order prohibiting the depositions because this case belongs in arbitration,” the Regents argued, noting that allowing discovery before a ruling on arbitration “would interfere” with any future arbitral proceedings.

As for whether UCLA is actually moving its football games to SoFi Stadium, the university said nothing is set in stone yet. 

“No decision has been made,” the school said, per the New York Times. 

A hearing on the Regents’ request for a stay is slated for Jan. 8. A Jan. 22 hearing regarding the motion to compel arbitration will follow.

— Chris Malone Méndez

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After a presentation to a team of industry-leading judges, the five-member graduate student team from USC took home the silver shovel as the winner of the 27th Annual NAIOP SoCal UCLA vs. USC Real Estate Challenge. Held Nov. 21 at USC, the competition featured five-member graduate student teams from the Ziman Center of Real Estate at UCLA’s Anderson School of Business and the Lusk Center at USC’s Marshall School of Business and Price School of Public Policy in a battle to determine the highest and best use for a unique parcel of land in Southern California.

This year’s Real Estate Challenge competition site was a 9.27-acre parcel within the partial redevelopment of the broader 142-acre Raytheon Campus in El Segundo. USC’s winning proposal, titled “The Concourse,” featured a medical campus supporting retail and a modern data center and substation. The students’ proposed concept combines the needs of the community and ownership by improving the site with a financially viable mixed-use development. The USC student team included Austin Risley, Jonathan Moftakhar, Alexandria Gordon, Austin Adams and Sagiv Hartmayer.

The 2024 Real Estate Challenge judges included: Jason Bonomo, asset manager, MetLife Investment Management; Andrew Fogg, partner, Cox Castle; Chris Tipre, principal, Trammell Crow Company; Courtney Trujillo, president, SR Watt Company; Blake Rogers, senior managing director, JLL Capital Markets; Sergio Valenti, regional principal, Ware Malcomb; and Zach Zanolli, managing director, Longpoint Partners.

Pictured: The USC team.

Newmark arranged the $55-million sale of 5210 Pacific Concourse, a Class A office building in El Segundo, to The Regents of the University of California. Co-head of U.S. capital markets Kevin Shannon, vice chairmen Ken White, Rob Hannan, Laura Stumm and Michael Moll, executive managing director Bill Bloodgood and director Hayden Clegg represented the seller, Karney Properties.

The 169,791-square foot building includes a partial lab build-out and was 43% leased to Siemens through October 2024. UCLA Health, which is governed by The Regents of the University of California, intends to fully occupy the building upon expiration of Siemens’ lease.

“The sale of 5210 Pacific Concourse to UCLA is a win-win for buyer and seller,” said Shannon. “The building provides UCLA with great life science bones – a steel frame, low-rise construction building with lab improvements on an oversized 9.2-acre site that provides long term optionality.”

UCLA sports benefactors Nahum and Alice Lainer have listed their Beverly Park estate for $26.5 million, marking the first time the property has gone up for sale.

The Lainers built the roughly 8,000-square-foot home at 28 Beverly Park Terrace in 1995, one of the first houses constructed in the gated community that’s home to celebrities such as Adele, Rod Stewart, Denzel Washington and Justin Bieber.

Coldwell Banker Realty’s Steve Frankel, who has the listing, described the property as Palladian and reminiscent of a Tuscan villa.

The Mediterranean-style home sits on a 2.7-acre lot with four beds and seven baths. A pool, gardens, fruit trees and enough space for 10 cars are among the estate’s amenities.

Frankel, who spoke with The Real Deal Friday morning just ahead of showings at the property, said it has attracted strong interest.

“We are getting so much activity on it because we are priced right,” Frankel explained. “For you to be able to buy into Beverly Park at this price point is rare and hasn’t happened in years.”

Last year, Mark Wahlberg’s home in the gated neighborhood sold for $55 million, after originally asking nearly $88 million in 2022. Sylvester Stallone sold his Beverly Park mansion last year to Adele for $58 million. The home originally listed for $110 million in 2021.

Most recently, a 16,000-square-foot mansion at 51 Beverly Park Way, with a $48.5 million ask, went into contract. In May, a 28,500-square-foot mansion at 73 Beverly Park Lane was listed for $89.9 million. There’s also the 23 Beverly Park Terrace home owned by Rod Stewart, which hit the market last June. It saw a price cut to $74 million in February before being taken off the market, according to Zillow.  

Their home listing is the latest real estate move this year by the Lainers.

In March, the two paid $7.8 million for Unit 20C at the Wilshire House in what marked, at the time, Los Angeles County’s priciest condo sale. The 5,400-square-foot unit spans the entire floor of the ritzy luxury tower and has three beds and five baths.

The philanthropic couple are long-time supporters of UCLA’s athletic program. They met while earning their undergraduate degrees at the school and cheered for the Bruins basketball team on their second date. Their contributions to the college include establishing a UCLA men’s basketball scholarship program in 1990 and going in with a group of other supporters on a fund focused on recruiting top coaching talent. 

In recognition of their gifts, UCLA’s athletic director’s formal job title is The Alice and Nahum Lainer Family Director of Athletics.  

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The reincarnation of a shuttered Los Angeles retail mecca as a sprawling UCLA research center has received a major boost from billionaire philanthropist Dr. Gary Michelson and his wife, Alya, who will give $120 million to ramp up the project.

Michelson, a spine surgeon and inventor, said the money will help launch the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, which aims to create breakthrough discoveries that prevent and cure diseases including cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s.

The institute will be a tenant in UCLA Research Park, which is under construction in the former Westside Pavilion. The indoor mall two miles south of the university at Pico and Westwood boulevards was a 1980s icon popular with shoppers and filmmakers before falling out of favor. Most of its stores closed by 2019.

The shopping center was being converted to offices when the UC Regents bought it for $700 million in January to create the research park. Along with the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, it will house the UCLA Center for Quantum Science and Engineering, as well as other science and medicine programs.

By purchasing the former shopping center, UCLA saved years of toil to build such a facility on its campus, which is the smallest of the nine UC undergraduate campuses and has very little room for growth.

“That building would have gone on the last available piece of property on the UCLA campus,” Michelson said, “and it would have been extraordinarily expensive to build there. As a real estate matter, this was just an extraordinary opportunity.”

The immunology institute had been planned for years, while a full-scale research park was something “we’ve always dreamed of having … but we always recognized we could never find a piece of property that big close to campus. We had sort of given up on the idea many years ago — and it came alive,” said former UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, who was instrumental in the purchase of the former Westside Pavilion.

An earlier plan to build the institute on the campus called for tearing down a parking garage, digging a hole deep enough to replace the parking and erecting a new building on top, Block said.

The gift, through the Michelson Medical Research Foundation, designates $100 million to establish two research entities within the institute, each funded with $50 million; one will focus on rapid vaccine development and the other on harnessing the body’s microbiome to advance human health. The microbiome research will be conducted in collaboration with the new UCLA Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center, placing it among the largest microbiome research enterprises in the world, the foundation said.

The foundation is also funding a $20-million endowment to provide research grants to young scientists using novel processes to advance immunotherapy research, human immunology and vaccine discovery.

The institute will have labs of different sizes meant to serve biotech researchers who can start with small teams that can grow into larger labs if they find success.

“We’re going to create an entire ecosystem of biotech startups and they’re going to stay right here” and attract other players to the neighborhood, Michelson said. “We’re going to build out an entire ecosystem of biotech all through Westwood.”

He envisions 5,000 people, including 500 research scientists, working in the institute. Gov. Gavin Newsom estimated in January that it would take more than three years to fully transform the 700,000-square-foot complex, but Michelson hopes to have a large portion of the immunology institute operating in half that time, he said. At 360,000 square feet, the institute will be the research park’s primary tenant.

The former mall’s 12-screen multiplex movie theater may be converted into lecture halls or performance spaces offering programming across the arts, humanities, sciences and social sciences, the chancellor’s office said.

The gift is the Michelsons’ largest single donation in 30 years of philanthropy that includes $50 million to build Michelson Hall at the University of Southern California, which is home to the Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience. The Michelson name will not be attached to the new UCLA complex, he said, because other philanthropists — perhaps one who donates more than he did — may want the recognition.

“The gift will change countless lives here and across the globe,” UCLA interim Chancellor Darnell Hunt said.

The institute will operate as a nonprofit medical research organization funded by a public-private partnership and governed by an independent board that includes UCLA representatives, according to a UC Regents document. The institute will pay UCLA 7.5% of the net revenues generated by the sale of new medicines and other inventions its scientists create, the document said.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the project “has the potential to fundamentally change health outcomes around the world and create good jobs in Los Angeles.”

The purchase of the former Westside Pavilion marked the third major acquisition for the public university system in Los Angeles in less than two years.

Seeking to expand its footprint, UCLA announced in June 2023 that it had acquired the Art Deco-style Trust Building in downtown Los Angeles and renamed it UCLA Downtown.

Nine months prior, the school spent $80 million to buy two other major properties owned by Marymount California University, a small Catholic university that was shuttered last year. The purchase included Marymount’s 24.5-acre campus in Rancho Palos Verdes and an 11-acre residential site in nearby San Pedro.