LOS ANGELES — As demand for studio space to produce television shows and movies soars in Los Angeles, a new creative office and studio campus is coming to Hollywood, bridging the old with the new.
A joint venture between Bardas Investment Group and Bain Capital Real Estate announced plans to spend $600 million to redevelop the Television Center into a new modern urban studio campus, officials said Thursday.
The Television Center at 6311 Romaine St. once served as the headquarters of Technicolor and a studio lot for Metro Pictures Corp. during the rise of film in the early 19th century.
"This project represents our company's continued focus on redeveloping infill products for the entertainment and media industries in the content capital of the world," said David Simon, the founder and managing principal of Bardas, in a news release. "The old home to Technicolor and Metro Pictures represents another great opportunity to keep Hollywood in Hollywood."
The announcement comes as demand for studio space soars in Los Angeles and the greater region.
In the past couple of years, major real estate companies have been investing heavily in buying production studios as media conglomerates race to produce movies, television and, nowadays, on-demand streaming shows.
"The advent of streaming has created a seemingly insatiable demand for content with downstream effects for real estate," researchers at commercial company CBRE wrote. "The top five streaming companies invested a staggering $25 billion in new productions in 2019 alone."
CBRE officials said the coronavirus pandemic accelerated the demand for streaming, with many people stuck at home.
People's entertainment consumption began to shift, and real estate professionals took notice, gobbling up sound and production stages.
One of the leaders in this space, Hackman Capital, has recently spent billions acquiring and upgrading old movie studios.
In 2019, the company purchased the Manhattan Beach studio, home of James Cameron's "Avatar" franchise, for $650 million. They're prepping the Culver Studios in Culver City for Amazon and are underway on a $1.25 billion plan to make over Television City in Los Angeles.
Apple is building a studio to produce their AppleTV+ content in Culver City.
In Hollywood, in March, Bardas and Bain purchased the Television Center from BLT Enterprises for $134 million — more than double the amount BLT acquired the site for in 2020, according to commercial real estate data site Reonomy.
Bardas and Bain plan to redevelop the 6.4-acre property built between 1930 and 1966.
JV officials said they would create a creative office environment and a state-of-the-art production facility.
The JV would preserve many of the old and distinctive buildings built during Technicolor's heyday and create an intimate new studio campus, which would be rebranded as Echelon Television Center.
In the northern part of the development, a brand new mid-rise office building will replace a parking lot and two dilapidated buildings. In the southern part, four large soundstages and a six-story creative office building would be built on top of a vacant parking lot.
Bain Capital Real Estate Managing Director Joe Marconi said he's bullish on the demand and growth of the media and entertainment industry, especially in Los Angeles.
"We are extremely excited to breathe life back into this site, honoring its past while delivering an exceptional project curated for today's content creators in the heart of Hollywood," said Marconi. "Similar to our Echelon Studios project, Echelon at Television Center will be another great addition to the entertainment and media landscape in Hollywood."