The Los Angeles Bioscience Ecosystem Summit Twenty 24 was held last month at UCLA. Speakers at the event included Robert Bradway, the chief executive of Thousand Oaks-based Amgen Inc.; Arie Belldegrun, chair of Century City-based Bellco Capital; and Gary Michelson, founder and co-chair of Michelson Philanthropies.
During the conference, a number of influential individuals in the biotech sector were given a tour of the site of the upcoming California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, one of two institutes planned for the former Westside Pavilion shopping center in Westwood. Google previously planned to occupy the mall but changed plans during the pandemic. After that, its former owners – Brentwood-based Hudson Pacific Properties and Santa Monica-based Macerich Co. – sold the property for $700 million to UCLA.
Belldegrun and Michelson, in addition to billionaire Michael Milken, UCLA health sciences clinical professor Eric Esrailian, food waste recycling magnate Meyer Luskin and tech billionaire Sean Parker, are behind the center
Those who previously shopped at the Westside Pavilion may find some of the property’s hallways and the location of the former Nordstrom store familiar, but the outside of the center is unrecognizable. It has a largely black and glass exterior with some green spaces.
The center is expected to welcome scientists starting late next year with full buildout taking several more years.
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Last week, Century City-based Dekel Capital hosted a pickleball tournament to benefit breast cancer research at Duarte-based City of Hope. The tournament raised close to $10,000.
Firms such as Benefit Street Partners, an asset manager based in New York; Goldrich Kest, a Culver City-based real estate firm; Brentwood-based Banc of California; and Dedeaux Properties, a Santa Monica-based real estate company specializing in industrial properties, participated in the event.
The team of Austin Richter of Zephyr Partners and Will Stoll of Altoma Real Estate Advisors won the competitive division and Mike Poyer of West Bay Capital and partner Tom Meek of Southern California Crane won the social division.
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The Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles has been named Senate District 35’s Nonprofit of the Year.
The Westchester-based youth orchestra touts itself as the largest majority Black orchestra in the country. It has more than 100 young musicians who perform free community concerts.
The orchestra was founded in 2009 and is a member of the League of American Orchestras.
“The Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles is honored to be represented by our dear friend, Senator Steve Bradford, and we are overwhelmingly grateful to him for nominating our organization to be the Nonprofit of the Year,” Charles Dickerson, founder, conductor and executive director of the organization, said in a statement. “We strive to uplift the young people in the community that we serve, and this nomination and recognition serve as encouragement for us to keep doing the work to which we are dedicated.”
The Insider is compiled by Interim Editor Hannah Welk. She can be reached at [email protected].
