Up Close With LA's Biggest Developer

With a pipeline that rivals any conventional development firm in LA, USC is helping to spearhead the Downtown LA boom you've heard so much about. The school's point person on development addressed more than 650 commercial real estate pros at Bisnow's LA State of the Market yesterday.

Lloyd Silberstein gave the audience a detailed look at the university’s master plan and shared the progress as he led the crowd through aerial footage and drone video of the campus.

USC has two campuses, health sciences and university park, which are seven miles apart on either side of downtown. Combined they include about 330 acres and 200 occupied buildings, Lloyd said.

Lloyd said the university’s master plan is well underway and will grow both campuses by nearly 30% in four years.In 2017, when the school finishes all the construction underway, it will have added 3M SF in 15 buildings.

The new USC Village, a 1.2M SF student housing and retail development is the largest portion of the plan. It includes five new buildings housing 2,700 students and 100K SF of retail. Construction started in November 2014 and all six buildings, including the central plant, topped out at the end of 2015. The USC Village will be completed in August 2017.

Five of the planned buildings are already complete, including a new communication and journalism facility with television and radio production studios, and Heritage Hall that includes a new museum telling the story of USC Olympic and collegiate athletes.

Some of the other new buildings underway include the 190K SF Michelson Center that combines bioscience and engineering research, the Glorya Kaufman International Dance Center, and Fertitta Hall, a tech rich active and experiential learning undergraduate business building. This is the largest expansion in the university’s history, Lloyd said.

Tune back in tomorrow for more of what LA's biggest luminaries had to say at the event!