UCLA in deal to buy Westside mall-to-office redevelopment from Hudson Pacific

UCLA is poised to buy the former Westside Pavilion mall, pulling the rug from Google’s plan to turn the 580,000-square-foot building into a West Los Angeles office campus.

The Westwood-based university has cut a deal to buy the half-dead mall at 10800-10830 and 10850 West Pico Boulevard, in Rancho Park, Urbanize Los Angeles reported, citing environmental review documents. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Hudson Pacific Properties, the Brentwood-based real estate investment trust, and Macerich, based in Santa Monica, own the property. 

The pending purchase has cut short plans by the Mountain View-based tech giant to turn the mall into an office tech campus it dubbed One Westside. 

Google, facing construction delays, had planned to move into the building this year. In 2019, it signed a 14-year lease for the one-time mall, which Hudson Pacific and Macerich then redeveloped into offices. Google started its tenant improvement work in late 2021.

The purchase of the mall by the University of California, Los Angeles, will include the eastern half of the mall at 10800-10830 West Pico Boulevard, which Google has already started work on. 

It also includes the largely unchanged western side of the mall at 10850 West Pico Boulevard.

UCLA has not said what it wants to do with the three-story indoor mall, which opened in 1985 with 70 shops and restaurants on the site of a free-standing May Company.

“The University will make no decision to undertake further development until it has complied with CEQA and an overall site development plan has been approved…” reads an environmental notice published Wednesday by the university.

The deal does not appear to include the West End, formerly the Westside Pavilion’s Macy’s, which has been converted to a 240,000-square-foot office complex by GPI Companies, according to Urbanize.

A parking garage at the mall has since been razed, and is now being redeveloped into a mixed-use apartment complex by GPI.

A sale to UCLA would be the third major purchase by the landlocked university in 15 months.

In September of last year, UCLA bought the former Marymount California campus in Rancho Palos Verdes for $80 million, giving it a 25-acre toehold along the coast.

In June, the university bought the historic The Trust Building at 433 South Spring Street in Downtown L.A.. It bought the 300,000-square-foot, 11-story Art Deco building for less than $40 million.

With or without the Westside Pavilion site, Google retains a large presence in L.A., according to Urbanize.

Google and YouTube now take up the historic Hughes Aircraft facilities in Playa Vista, including the 300,000-square-foot Spruce Goose hangar. The Mountain View-based tech giant also owns 12 acres of adjoining property, but has not announced its plans for the land.

— Dana Bartholomew

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