The University of California Board of Regents recently approved the $7.8 million purchase of a new home for UC Santa Barbara Chancellor Dennis Assanis and future chancellors.
The house was purchased using “external financing” that will be paid off from donor funds, according to Stett Holbrook, associate director of Strategic and Critical Communications for the University of California.
No state funding or student tuition dollars were used for the purchase, Holbrook said.
Holbrook said the sale is final and Assanis has been staying in temporary housing since starting his role as UCSB Chancellor on Sept. 1. The Board of Regents authorized the purchase at its Oct. 23 meeting in closed session.
UC officials did not share the address, but county real estate records show that the Regents-purchased home is reportedly located at 4672 Via Roblada in the Hope Ranch community near Santa Barbara. It is about 9 miles from the UCSB campus.
Property listings for the home show it has six bedrooms and seven bathrooms. The property’s Zillow page describes the home as a Hope Ranch French country manor on a gated drive. The property was listed for $7.95 million in September and sold for $7.8 million on Oct. 28.
As former Chancellor Henry Yang prepared to retire, UCSB realized the on-campus chancellor house needed to be renovated, and they planned to lease a house off campus for the incoming chancellor to stay in during renovations.
Historically two houses on campus, the University House at 314 Channel Islands Road and the Centennial House next door, have been used for chancellor housing. Both houses were constructed in the 1960s and have had little to no updates done since then, according to Holbrook.
Traditionally, UC Chancellors are required to live on campus and host events and fundraisers in their homes
UCSB spokesperson Kiki Reyes confirmed that Yang and his wife, Dilling Yang, moved out of the University House this past summer. Yang retired from the chancellor role in June, although he will stay on to do teaching and research at UCSB as a professor.
In March an independent engineering assessment determined it would cost $8.4 million and two years of construction to renovate both houses, which total over 9,000 square feet.
Because of this, the UC Regents approved a plan in May to temporarily lease an off-campus home for the next UCSB chancellor.
Since then, Holbrook said, the campus decided that the 1-acre University House site could be better used for something else, such as more student housing.
The University House and the Centennial House are right across the road from the Santa Cruz student residential hall.
“Acquiring a new property to serve as the Chancellor’s home is considered a better solution,” Holbrook said. “Mitigating long-term leasing costs, and freeing up prime on-campus land for future uses, such as student housing projects.”
He added that because of Santa Barbara’s high end real estate market, the investment in new property is expected to grow in value over time.