UCLA Pays $55 Million for Sports Medicine Site in South Bay

UCLA has continued its L.A. expansion by buying a 168,400-square-foot office building in the South Bay for $55 million.

The Westwood-based University of California campus picked up 52Ten, a two-story building at 5210 Pacific Concourse in the unincorporated pocket of Del Aire, the Commercial Observer reported, citing an unidentified source.

The seller was Karney Properties, based in Santa Monica. The deal works out to $327 per square foot.

UCLA Health has a $90 million plan to redevelop the property into a UCLA Health Sports Medicine Institute.

Karney bought the building, built in 2002, from Siemens in 2017 for $53 million, or $315 per square foot. Four years ago, Karney upgraded the offices with a cafe, library and common room.

UCLA’s plans include adding an ambulatory surgery center, a medical clinic, advanced imaging, a microbiology/serology lab and a specialty pharmacy, according to a request for an architect in July.

“The facility will enable us to leverage the existing lab infrastructure and add technologies to expand our patient care services,” UCLA Health said in a statement for the Observer.

UCLA Health owns five medical centers and 280 medical clinics between Southern California and the Central Coast, in addition to the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

For two years, the landlocked UCLA has embarked on a major real estate expansion across Los Angeles. Its UCLA Health has also expandied across the region.

In September, the University of California paid $39 million for a nearly complete, 62-unit apartment complex at 3301 South Canfield Avenue in Cheviot Hills, five miles from its Westwood campus.

In March, UCLA Health bought the 260-bed West Hills Hospital and Medical Center in the west San Fernando Valley from HCA Healthcare for an undisclosed price. The renamed UCLA West Valley Medical Center sits on a 14-acre parking lot, allowing room for expansion.

In January, UC paid $700 million for the former Westside Pavilion mall at 10800 West Pico Boulevard in West Los Angeles, in the middle of an office conversion for Google. In August, philanthropist Dr. Gary Michelson pledged $120 million for California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy at the property now known as UCLA Research Park.

Last summer, UCLA acquired the historic Trust Building in Downtown L.A. for administrative offices and classrooms for less than $40 million.

The previous January, the university acquired a 25-acre campus in Rancho Palos Verdes from Marymount California University, and an 11-acre property with 81 townhomes in San Pedro for $80 million.

— Dana Bartholomew