Media from throughout the State came to cover the press conference held by UCLA to announce the purchase of the former Westside Pavilion property to be the future site of the UCLA Research Park. The facility, a 700,000 square-foot property lies two miles south of the Westwood campus.
A short video with highlights of the media event can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RtIDo3ZFeE
The research park will house the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy at UCLA and the UCLA Center for Quantum Science and Engineering, as well as programs across the disciplines.
It was announced that the acquisition was made possible in part by an intended $500 million investment from the state of California, with $200 million already allocated. It has been reported that Google, the organization that held a long-term lease for the facility, was also involved in making the deal possible.
The California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy is also supported by a group of founding donors led by Meyer Luskin, Dr. Gary Michelson, Dr. Eric Esrailian, Dr. Arie Belldegrun, Sean Parker and Michael Milken.
UCLA has indicated that it could take a few years to build out the facility to meet their specifications for the type of work that will be taking place there. In the meanwhile, WSSM and other neighborhood groups are reaching out to the campus representatives to determine if any portion of the property might be activated in advance. Many would like to see at least one of the movie theatres retained and activated for showings of films to be presented via UCLA’s performing arts or film archive departments.
WSSM will be inviting a UCLA rep to report to an upcoming WSSM Board meeting this spring. Watch for the announcement of that meeting when the speaker has been confirmed.