UCSD Finds Campus Space Downtown : Education: University ends four-year search with lease for rooms in One America Plaza to hold Extension classes and locate a bookstore.

Come September, attorneys and staffers at a downtown law firm will be able to take the elevator to school--20 floors down. For others, UC San Diego’s new campus might mean an opportunity to pick up new job skills or attend a free lunchtime lecture.

After a four-year search, university officials signed a five-year lease Monday to house a downtown extension on the second floor of the 34-story One America Plaza, at 600 W. Broadway.

UCSD officials chose the location to meet the needs of the downtown community and South County. More than 50 classes will be offered to the public this fall, as well as free lunchtime lectures. Students and passers-by will also have access to the UCSD Downtown Center Bookstore, which will be electronically linked to the main campus bookstore, which offers 100,000 titles.

“It’s going to be wonderful to have that. It’s a national-class bookstore. To have a satellite of it available in the building is going to be a treat to our attorneys and staff,” said Charles Reilly, head of client services for the 125-attorney firm of Luce Forward Hamilton & Scripps. Attorneys and staff at the firm have both taught and taken courses through the UCSD Extension in the past, Reilly said.

UCSD officials hope the new location will enhance the relationship among the school, downtown firms and merchants, and the community.

The combination of a university, law firms and the new Museum of Contemporary Art, which will open in the building in October, will create an exciting atmosphere for learning, building tenants say.

UCSD officials say the campus will bring cutting-edge course work to the downtown community. It may also mean a healthy boost for downtown merchants: If the extension does as well as its sister campus in Rancho Bernardo, it could mean as many as 6,000 enrolled students a year frequenting the downtown area, UCSD Extension Dean Mary Walshok said.

“There are tens of thousands of people downtown who would be more likely to go to one of those extension classes if they could go to one close to work,” said Wayne Raffesberger, executive director of San Diegans Inc., who encouraged the creation of a downtown campus. “But really, that campus is just plain good business for downtown. Those people, if they stay downtown after work for a class, will probably also buy a meal, a Coke, or a book.”

The downtown campus will stress business, languages--especially Spanish and Japanese--environmental health and safety courses, and legal courses, said UCSD spokeswoman Laura Gropen. It will also focus on U.S.-Mexico trade issues and biotechnology--areas of growing concern to the San Diego business community, Walshok said.

“We’re just delighted. We think it’s a first step,” Raffesberger said. “I would like to see students living downtown in dormitories. The vibrancy and the life that would bring to downtown would be remarkable.”

San Diegans Inc. would also like to see San Diego State University and City College share a central downtown space with UCSD, he said.

For now, however, he will have to make do with 10,000 square feet that will include at least six classrooms, an art gallery to feature UCSD faculty work, administrative offices and the bookstore.

Courses to be offered in the fall include everything from “Marketing to the Hispanic Consumer” to “Environmental Law” and “Overview and Update of U.S.-Mexican Trade.”

Monday’s lease-signing ends a frustrating four-year search for a building capable of handling hundreds of students at a time, Walshok said.

The UCSD Extension began offering downtown courses in 1987, from the classrooms of Cal Western University. Though Walshok said the response was great, Cal Western also had a full load of students. By mid-1989 it could no longer share its classrooms with UCSD, Walshok said. The Extension had already begun its search for a building, but, until about a year ago, the search was a flop.

“We had four or five lease negotiations that came to naught,” Walshok said. Those buildings often required retrofitting of hallways or stairwells, she said, or had restrooms that were not wheelchair-accessible.

Initially, UCSD officials dreamed of a joint-venture arrangement, in which a developer would finance the university facility in exchange for the commercial activity the university’s presence would generate.

“We’re still open to a developer building us into a project,” Walshok said. “We could see, in the decade ahead, such an opportunity developing for us.”

For now, they have settled for a garden-variety business deal. “It was a standard transaction that made sense for both parties,” said Matt Spathas, a leasing agent with One Plaza Realty.

Walshok approached his agency about a year ago, after an introduction by the Centre City Development Corp. The match worked. “I think it’s just great for the project and downtown,” Spathas said. “Extension courses offered for the downtown community just makes for another reason to live, work or stay downtown.”

Walshok estimates the campus will cost $400,000 to $500,000 a year to operate.

While regular undergraduate and graduate programs at the UCSD main campus have fallen victim to the state budgetary ax, the UCSD Extension uses no tax dollars or other government funding. Enrollment fees should cover the cost of the new campus, Walshok said.