UCLA Expands Again, Plans $90M Sports Medicine Redevelopment
The university paid $55 million, or $324 per square foot, for the facility in L.A.’s South Bay
By Greg Cornfield November 1, 2024 2:50 pm
reprints
UCLA is advancing its wide-ranging expansion with another real estate acquisition and a plan for a significant redevelopment in its hometown.
UCLA put down $55 million for a nearly 170,000-square-foot office facility in Los Angeles’ South Bay, sources told Commercial Observer. The university has a roughly $90 million plan to redevelop the two-story facility for the UCLA Health Sports Medicine Institute.
Karney Properties sold the two-story asset at 5210 Pacific Concourse for about $324 per square foot. Previously nicknamed 52Ten, the facility is on 9.5 acres off Interstate 405 between El Segundo and Hawthorne, near the southeast corner of LAX.
Property records show Karney purchased the now 22-year-old building from Siemens Corporation for $53 million in 2017, and renovated it in 2020, adding a cafe, a library and a common room.
According to a request for an architect from July, UCLA’s plans to redevelop the property for its sports medicine program could include adding an ambulatory surgery center, a medical clinic, advanced imaging, a microbiology/serology clinical lab and a specialty pharmacy.
“The location and infrastructure of the building align with UCLA Health’s mission to provide leading-edge health care to the Los Angeles community,” UCLA Health said in a statement shared with CO. “The facility will enable us to leverage the existing lab infrastructure and add technologies to expand our patient care services.”
Karney Properties did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Newmark (NMRK) facilitated the transaction, but did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
UCLA has been rapidly expanding throughout L.A. in the past couple of years. The university closed a landmark $700 million deal to acquire what was supposed to be a trophy office for Google, and plans to transform it into a large-scale research park on L.A.’s Westside.
Last summer, UCLA acquired the historic Trust Building in Downtown L.A. for less than $40 million to expand with new classrooms and administration offices. The university also acquired a 25-acre campus in Rancho Palos Verdes from Marymount California University, and an 11-acre residential site in San Pedro for $80 million in January 2023.
Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.
