Because DTLA has become so damn fabulous (what a difference 10 years makes), Cal State Los Angeles is opening “a new downtown Los Angeles campus,” the school announced in a statement.

Downtown dwellers can enjoy loft living, craft beer, Whole Foods (this fall), and soon they'll be able to take classes in some of Cal State L.A.'s undergraduate, graduate, professional development and certificate programs.

The campus will be focused, of course, on “meeting the needs of working professionals,” the school says.

The leased 21,000-square-foot facility at West Eighth Street and South Grand Avenue is across the street from — you guessed it — the soon-to-open downtown Whole Foods. That's the north end of downtown's booming South Park neighborhood.

The university says the campus will open sometime next year.

Classes will include what the school calls an L.A.-specific curriculum — “urban issues, sustainability and diversity.”

The timing couldn't be better. With the gentrification and revival of the city's core communities has come a renewed interest in neighborhood history, local demographics and historic preservation.



“As we build new programs to meet the needs of our region,” said Cal State L.A. provost and vice president for academic affairs Lynn Mahoney, “we will focus our attention on current and future workforce demands,”

University president William A. Covino says the institution “will bring the resources of Cal State L.A. to students downtown, where they work and live.”

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