LOS ANGELES DAILY JOURNAL
Law School Lands Space Near Courthouses

October 29, 2007

INDUSTRY WATCH
By Don J. DeBenedictis
Daily Journal Staff Writer

      SANTA ANA - The downturn in the residential real estate market has produced a silver lining for San Diego's Thomas Jefferson School of Law.
      The law school, which has been operating for several years out of a trio of disconnected office buildings in the city's Old Town area, has announced that it has purchased an 8,000-square-foot property just blocks from the downtown courthouses.
      By 2010, that lot should boast a brand-new, eight-story law-school building, including a two-floor law library, legal clinics, high-tech classrooms and three levels of underground parking, plus some commercial space, according to the school.
      Dean Rudolph C. Hasl said the school had been working with the site's owner, Carlsbad-based developer Barratt American Inc., to design a building that would house the law school as well as condominiums on the top stories. But as demand for downtown condos fell, Barratt decided to sell the property outright to Thomas Jefferson, Hasl said.
      "We probably benefited by their decision," he said, by being able to use more of the available space.
      "This way, there's more law school," Hasl added. "We're essentially doubling the square footage available for the law school."
      The new building will contain 142,000 net square feet of usable space out of 177,000 total square feet.
      Plans for the building have been submitted for approval to the Centre City Development Corp. Groundbreaking is tentatively planned for April.
      Hasl would not disclose the purchase price of the land, saying only that the school is paying "a reasonable market rate for downtown San Diego property."
      He said he expects estimates of the building cost to be completed in a few weeks.
      To purchase the land and erect the building, Thomas Jefferson is using some accumulated reserves and has obtained a bridge loan from Merrill Lynch, secured by restructuring tax-exempt educational bonds issued for the school in 2005, Hasl said.
      Although Thomas Jefferson has 800 students and anticipates 975 when the new building opens in 2010, enrollment growth was not why the school sought new quarters.
      Hasl said that school facilities are scattered among the three Old Town buildings. For instance, faculty, administrative services and the library are in different locations, he said.
      Further, the former office buildings are inefficient and ill-equipped for teaching.
      "They're not conducive to modern law-school educational technology," he said.
      The new building should solve those problems, as well as give students quick access to San Diego's downtown courthouses and law offices. And the site is near a trolley stop, making it handy for commuters, Hasl said.
      In a statement, the chair of the Thomas Jefferson board of trustees, Samuel J. Kahn, said the new school also "will be an important part of the fabric of the downtown community."
      "We've been working on this [project] for a year and a half," Hasl said. "We've finally been able to come up with a plan that works."