UCLA Wants to Buy Google’s Westside Pavilion Office That Never Came to Be
The tech giant’s lease was set to generate $43 million per year
By Greg Cornfield December 28, 2023 9:35 am
reprints
News of what could be the biggest deal of 2023 for Los Angeles is landing just as we were closing the book on the year.
UCLA wants to buy a former shopping center on L.A.’s Westside that was intended to be a large-scale trophy office redevelopment fully leased to Google (GOOGL) through 2036. Urbanize broke the news, citing an environmental notice published Wednesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“We are always looking for ways to deepen our engagement across this great city,” a UCLA spokesperson said in an email to Commercial Observer, declining to comment further.
The university’s plans have not been confirmed. Two industry analysts told CO the property is likely destined for a life sciences redevelopment.
“The university will make no decision to undertake further development until it has complied with CEQA [the California Environmental Quality Act] and an overall site development plan has been approved,” per the environmental notice.
This brings an end to the project known as One Westside, in which owners Hudson Pacific Properties (HPP) and Macerich planned to redo the defunct shopping center into more than 580,000 square feet of office space for the $1.8 trillion tech company. Google had signed a 14-year lease that was announced five years ago in 2019, and commenced in 2022. It was set to generate $43.2 million of net operating income annually for HPP.
Google did not return requests for comment. The Mountain View-based company has been spending hundreds of millions of dollars cutting office leasing, but that had not yet included the West Pavilion project at 10800-10830 West Pico Boulevard and 10850 West Pico Boulevard.
The sale to UCLA would be a godsend for studio and office landlord HPP, which suffered through the Hollywood strikes this year and has been unloading underperforming office properties from its portfolio. HPP did not immediately return requests for comment.
UCLA has been an active buyer in commercial real estate this year. In June, the university acquired the historic Trust Building in Downtown L.A. for less than $40 million to expand with new classrooms and administration offices. UCLA also acquired a 24.5-acre campus in Rancho Palos Verdes and an 11-acre residential site in San Pedro for $80 million in January 2023.
This is a developing story. It has been updated since publishing to include minor details regarding potential uses for the project.
Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.
