The Westwood AT&T store plans to relocate down the street to the previous location of Urban Outfitters on Westwood Boulevard by the end of the year.
The new AT&T store will be located on the southeast corner of Westwood Boulevard and Kinross Avenue, and is slated to open in the fall, said Meredith Red, spokeswoman for AT&T in Los Angeles, in an email statement.
The location, which is roughly 11,000 square feet and is across the intersection from the Verizon Wireless store, has been empty since late 2014 when Urban Outfitters moved a block closer to UCLA on Westwood Boulevard. Mark Tronstein, the landlord for the new location, could not be reached for comment for this article.
Some students shopping in Westwood said they don’t think a larger AT&T store will be useful for UCLA students.
“I think Westwood has a bit of a problem with not having enough college-related stores,” said Chandler Schlupf, a physics graduate student. “I would prefer anything but an AT&T store.”
Elaine Liu, a fourth-year business economics student, said she would prefer to see a clothing retailer in the bigger location.
“There’s just not much of a need for students to have a cell phone store there,” Liu said. “But it would be nice to have more clothing options.”
Other students, however, said they think they might benefit from the expanded store.
Darren Tan, a first-year business economics student who uses AT&T, said he is happy about the expansion and he thinks it is useful for students to have the store close to campus.
The new store will continue to offer UCLA students special reduced pricing, including waived activation and upgrade fees as well as service discounts, Red said.
Contributing reports by Roberta Luna Jr., Bruin contributor.