Chaminade College Preparatory is holding a groundbreaking ceremony on its West Hills campus Wednesday, marking the start of a $66 million transformation that will eventually give the school a new pool, a rebuilt baseball field, new academic classrooms, a student quad, and a pedestrian bridge stretching over Saticoy Street to connect its two campuses.
The project traces back to a real estate move Chaminade made in 2018, when the school purchased a 4.8-acre shopping center directly across Saticoy Street from its main campus, according to the Los Angeles Times. That parcel, bought for $14 million from West Hills Market, LLC and Leimert/Saticoy, L.P., was one of the last non-residential commercial properties available near the campus, as reported by The Acorn.
What the New Campus Will Look Like
Once finished, the rebuilt baseball field is expected to be ready by winter 2028, per the same Times report, with the full campus transformation targeted for completion by 2030. When the current baseball diamond is eventually vacated, Chaminade plans to build a new softball field on that site, according to the Times account.
Environmental filings submitted to Los Angeles City Planning in June 2024 lay out the scope in municipal terms: the project spans 25.86 total acres across a 21.03-acre Main Campus and a 4.83-acre North Campus, according to CEQAnet filings. Those same filings confirm the two campuses will be linked by an overhead pedestrian bridge and note that on-site parking will grow to 501 spaces, even as the school maintains a strict enrollment cap of 1,360 students.
Part of a Larger Fundraising Push
The West Hills groundbreaking follows an earlier phase of Chaminade's broader capital campaign, known as “Soaring to New Heights.” The school completed modernized STEM learning facilities at its Chatsworth middle school campus in May 2026 before turning its attention to the high school site, according to Chaminade College Preparatory. Chaminade operates its middle school for grades 6 through 8 in Chatsworth and its high school for grades 9 through 12 in West Hills.
Planned facilities at the high school site also include an outdoor classroom and greenhouse funded by the Fritz B. Burns Foundation, which will support a new curriculum centered on nursery operations and business strategy, per Chaminade News.
Chaminade Enters a Regional Facilities Arms Race
Chaminade's expansion lands amid a broader building boom among its Mission League rivals. Harvard-Westlake is nearing completion on its own $200 million, 17-acre River Park sports complex in Studio City, built on land the school purchased in 2017 for $42 million, according to the Los Angeles Times. Hoodline previously covered that project in a report on the nearly finished complex. Harvard-Westlake expects to unveil River Park in early 2027, and the finished development is set to include an 80,000-square-foot gymnasium seating over 1,000 people, a 52-meter Olympic-sized pool, eight tennis courts, and two turf fields.
That Studio City project replaced the former Weddington Golf & Tennis Center and cleared a significant regulatory hurdle when the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to approve it in November 2023, according to Coastline 840 Real Estate. A subsequent legal challenge from the community group Save Weddington, which argued against the loss of public golf facilities and green space, was dismissed by an L.A. Superior Court judge in 2024, per that same account.
A School Built on a Seven-Decade Foundation
Chaminade College Preparatory was founded in 1952 by the Society of Mary and originally opened in Cheviot Hills before relocating to its current West Hills site in 1961, continuing the Marianist educational tradition established under the school's namesake, Blessed William Joseph Chaminade. Tuition for the 2026-2027 academic year runs $26,995, plus a $385 annual technology fee and a $600 new student registration fee, according to Chaminade College Preparatory.
The school competes in the CIF Southern Section Mission League, a conference that also includes Harvard-Westlake, Sierra Canyon, Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks, Crespi, Loyola, St. Francis, and Bishop Alemany, per SBLive Sports. Mission League schools regularly battle for CIF section and state championships across football, baseball, basketball, and aquatics, making upgraded facilities like Chaminade's new pool and ballfields a competitive as well as academic investment.
