Cedars-Sinai has purchased the Beverly Connection shopping center at 100 N. La Cienega Blvd. for approximately $270 million, according to property and business records. The deal works out to roughly $790 per square foot for the 340,000-square-foot retail complex.
The seller was New York City-based Ashkenazy Acquisition, controlled by developer Ben Ashkenazy. Cedars-Sinai chief executive Peter Slavin is listed as a managing member of the purchasing entity. Neither Ashkenazy Acquisition nor Cedars-Sinai responded to requests for comment. Ashkenazy signed the deed in early March.
Cedars-Sinai’s main campus sits minutes away at 8700 Beverly Blvd. The hospital system already operates clinics 99 N. La Cienega Blvd.
A Sale Years in the Making
The move follows a long stretch of money troubles for the property. Ashkenazy had secured an extension on $175 million in debt tied to the shopping center, with a new maturity date of July 2026. The popular shopping spot had previously been connected to a $210 million commercial mortgage-backed deal that spent years collecting dust and woes under a securities package in special servicing.
An appraisal in December 2024 said the mall was worth $193 million, down from $260 million a decade earlier. Ashkenazy said that wasn’t right and pushed back on that number last summer. A company spokesperson said the property had been independently appraised above $300 million and was running at occupancy above 95 percent. The $270 million sale price lands above the Morningstar figure but below Ashkenazy’s counter-estimate.
What Cedars-Sinai Plans to Do With It Is Unclear
No announcement has been made about the hospital system’s intended use for the property. The Beverly Connection currently houses Target, Nordstrom Rack, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and Ross. The complex sits at the corner of La Cienega Boulevard and Beverly Boulevard, on the border of West Hollywood and Los Angeles.
More Than a Century on the Westside
The whole thing started with 12 beds and a Victorian house. The Hebrew Benevolent Society opened a small hospital near downtown Los Angeles in 1902, called it Kaspare Cohn Hospital, and that was that for nearly three decades. In 1930 the institution packed up and moved to Hollywood, renamed itself Cedars of Lebanon, and expanded into an Art Deco building on Fountain Avenue. The name was a reference to the timber used in Solomon’s Temple. The building’s still standing. The Church of Scientology bought it, painted it bright blue, and it’s been the church’s West Coast headquarters ever since.
Mount Sinai Hospital came together separately, founded in 1918 as a two-room hospice when the influenza pandemic was killing people faster than existing facilities could handle them. It didn’t stay put. The hospital moved several times over the following three decades, and didn’t find a permanent home until 1950, when Emma and Hyman Levine donated the land at 8700 Beverly Blvd.
The two hospitals merged in 1961. The practical reason was straightforward enough: both were Jewish institutions competing for the same pool of donors, and that wasn’t working for either of them. Construction on the current Beverly Boulevard campus broke ground in November 1972, with a $4 million gift from the Max Factor Family Foundation helping to move things along. The hospital opened April 3, 1976.
Today it’s the largest nonprofit hospital west of the Mississippi. Cedars-Sinai holds 886 licensed beds, employs more than 2,100 physicians and 2,800 nurses, and ranks first in California in the U.S. News & World Report standings. The campus runs 24 acres and includes a donated art collection of more than 4,000 works.
It’s also become something of a destination over the decades. Frank Sinatra died there. Madonna had hernia surgery there. Kim Kardashian and Kanye West chose Cedars for the birth of their daughter. The hospital delivers around 7,000 babies a year and holds a distinction no other private hospital in Los Angeles County can claim: it’s the only one with a Level I trauma center.
Perhaps they’ll keep the retail tenants (and the restaurants) and have their rent cover some of the overhead? In any case, that mandatory $6 parking charge has to go – f*ck the last owner for that!
WOW A GREAT PURCHASE! No joke. it has systematically failed as commercial. But a lot that huge and some off the larger building could be converted while Cedars will have decades to keep adding new towers and whatever comes in the future for new labs for who knows the gen of medication down a long pipeline. That price seems amazingly low … It’s huge and Beverly Hills Adjacent can be more per square foot than being in BH I would have bought it just broke and on top low a fixed income to even with Medicare can’t not afford one… Read more »
There are other Level 1 trauma centers in Los Angeles County, just not private ones as you have stated. Sethonthescene on Instagram said the property will be a new Cedars Sinai campus to serve more people so unsure if this is an assumption or fact.
Thank you for the history, Brian. I recently read that Cedars owns 30 facilities. It’s quite the corporation. See a lot of signs, but it’s not at all clear that they’re all occupied with medical services. Lately I’ve been availing myself of their services. Been to offices in Westchester and Reseda. The place that is the hardest to navigate, even with a map, is the one here in WeHo, Bev Hills. I get lost constantly, wandering up and down stairs, cross the street and cross back: The signs are awful. Maybe spend some money making it easier to find your… Read more »
I’ve thought for years Cedars would buy Beverly Center. Before the renovations a while back it was even the same color as the Cedars buildings.
Brian-
Thank you for the update and for the fascinating history of Cedars-Sinai!
Just one minor correction I think- 99 N. La Cienega Blvd. is further south on Restaurant Row closer to Wilshire Blvd.
Yes, thank you Jay for clarifying 🙏🏼