Vanderbilt Buys CCA Campus for San Francisco Satellite

Vanderbilt University has found a home in San Francisco.

The Nashville-based institution acquired the California College of the Arts campus in the Design District in a major West Coast expansion for the university, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Terms of the deal, including sale price and square footage, were not disclosed.

Vanderbilt plans to establish a full-time academic campus at the California College of the Arts site beginning in the fall of next year. The campus will serve approximately 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students and have permanent faculty and staff.

News surfaced last year that Vanderbilt was looking for a place to set up shop in San Francisco, reportedly eyeing the 5M mixed-use project in South of Market. Ultimately, the school chose the California College of the Arts campus because it has housing for 1,000 students and is already configured for academic use, saving time and money that would’ve been necessary to convert some of the downtown space they considered.

“We looked at various different opportunities,” Vanderbilt chancellor Daniel Diermeier told the Chronicle. “We looked downtown. Those would have been possibilities had [the] opportunity to work with CCA not arisen.”

After Vanderbilt takes over the California College of the Arts campus, Vanderbilt will “establish undergraduate and graduate programming, including art and design programs” at the site, CCA president David Howse told community members. “Vanderbilt also plans to operate a CCA Institute at Vanderbilt which will include, among other things, the Wattis Institute of Contemporary Arts, will maintain CCA archival materials, and will serve as a vehicle for CCA alumni engagement.”

CCA has been navigating rough financial waters over the past two years. In 2024, the school spent $123 million on building a campus in San Francisco and consolidating it with its original Oakland campus, the San Francisco Standard reported. Following the expansion, enrollment dropped significantly, leading to a $20 million budget deficit. Early last year, CCA received a $45 million donation lifeline, half of which came from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. “Ultimately, neither of these are enough to ensure CCA can continue to operate independently,” Howse said of the funding injections.

Vanderbilt must receive regulatory approvals for its satellite campus before it begins operations.

— Chris Malone Méndez