In 1979, the Gladstone Institutes was founded from an endowment from J. David Gladstone, a self-made man who pioneered a new trend in commercial real estate: the indoor, air-conditioned shopping mall. Gladstone died in 1971, in the middle of building the Northridge mall in Southern California. His assets, which included the unfinished mall, were valued at $8 million.

The completed Northridge mall was subsequently sold and the proceeds used to start a not-for-profit foundation dedicated to cardiovascular research.