USC Buys Hebrew Union College Campus for $35M

University of Southern California has bought a Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion building next to its Exposition Park campus for $34.6 million in a buy-leaseback deal.

USC purchased the college’s 50,000-square-foot Jack H. Skirball Campus at 3077 University Avenue, north of USC, Commercial Observer reported.

The deal works out to $692 per square foot.

Hebrew Union will lease back the entire property for two years, during which they will renovate the 30,000 square feet of the building’s west wing, which HUC will own and permanently occupy. During the two-year lease, Hebrew Union will renovate and upgrade the west wing’s infrastructure, technology and natural lighting upgrades, a spokesperson told The Real Deal.

Israeli-born architect Hagy Belzberg, founding partner of Santa Monica-based BA Collective, will lead the makeover.

Hebrew Union College, a rabbinical training and higher education institute of Reform Judaism, was founded in 1875. It has owned and occupied the Skirball campus since 1954, operating as an academic partner to the larger USC.

In 2022, the university and the college renewed their partnership for another 25 years.

The USC expansion comes as Hebrew Union College gave up ground in New York to New York University.

This month, Hebrew Union sold its sister campus in Manhattan’s NoHo neighborhood to NYU for $75.5 million. Details of the property, such as the size of the campus, were not disclosed.

Hebrew Union College then bought the First Battery Armory building on the Upper West Side from American Broadcasting Company for $32 million, with plans to move there by 2027, according to CO.

— Dana Bartholomew