Cal State L.A. Opening Downtown Campus

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Cal State Los Angeles is opening a campus in downtown Los Angeles, having signed a 10-year lease late last month for 21,000 square feet at 801 S. Grand Ave. in the Financial District.

Monthly asking rent at the 207,000-square-foot Class A office building, owned by Hollywood developer CIM Group, is about $2.67 a square foot, according to CoStar Group Inc. That figure values the university’s lease at about $6.7 million.

The building is 85 percent leased by tenants that include Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles and the headquarters of financial services firm Finance One.

The 24,000-student university’s new campus, which will offer undergraduate, graduate, professional development and certificate programs, will open in 2016.

It sits in an area undergoing a residential development boom, with thousands of apartments under construction or in the pipeline. Eighth & Grand, a 700-unit apartment complex at 770 S. Grand, anchored by a Whole Foods, is across the street from the new campus.

“We will bring the resources of Cal State L.A. to students downtown, where they work and live,” said university President William A. Covino.

The 175-acre main campus of Cal State Los Angeles is four miles east of downtown, at 5151 State University Drive in University Hills.

Lisa St. John and Peter Best of L.A. Realty Partners, as well as John McAniff and Tim Miller of Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.’s downtown office represented CIM in the lease deal. Will Adams at CBRE represented Cal State Los Angeles.