Southeast : CSU Officials Approve $37 Million for New Headquarters

If all goes according to plan, the California State University system will soon have a new Long Beach headquarters.

University officials voted recently to spend $37 million to build a headquarters next to the university system’s aging center at 400 Golden Shore. The 140,000-square-foot building could be completed by the end of 1997.

Officials say a new facility is important to ensure the safety of university workers in the event of an earthquake.

The system’s current headquarters, a 20-year-old structure that houses 300 university employees, will receive about $1.5 million in seismic upgrading over the next five months until the new headquarters is completed, said spokeswoman Colleen Bentley-Adler. The work is being performed to ensure employees’ safety until the new building is finished. Then the old building will be torn down.

Before construction can begin, city officials must approve the proposal and geologists must ensure that the ground will remain firm during an earthquake. If all goes as expected, construction could begin by the end of the year.

The new building is expected to house nearly 500 university employees. About 200 university workers in a leased Los Alamitos office will move to the headquarters after the building is completed, officials said.