Historic film studio hits the market at top dollar even as filming dips

One of the oldest movie studios successful Los Angeles is up for sale, possibly to the newest procreation of contented creators.

The imaginable merchantability of Occidental Studios comes amid a driblet successful filming successful Los Angeles arsenic the section amusement manufacture faces specified headwinds arsenic rising contention from studios successful different cities and countries, arsenic good arsenic the aftermath of filming slowdowns during the pandemic and manufacture strikes of 2023.

Occidental Studios, which dates backmost to 1913, was erstwhile utilized by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks to marque soundless films. It is simply a tiny mentation of a accepted Hollywood workplace with soundstages, offices and writers’ bungalows successful a 3-acre gated field adjacent Echo Park successful Historic Filipinotown.

Kermit the Frog supra the Jim Henson Company workplace batch successful Hollywood.

(AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

The seller hopes its boutique estimation volition garner $45 million, which would fertile it 1 of the astir invaluable studios successful Southern California astatine $651 per quadrate foot. A legendary Hollywood workplace founded by Charlie Chaplin successful 1917 sold past twelvemonth for $489 per foot, according to existent property information supplier CoStar.

The Chaplin workplace known until precocious arsenic the Jim Henson Company Lot was purchased by singer-songwriter John Mayer and movie manager McG from the household of famed Muppets creator Jim Henson.

Occidental Studios whitethorn merchantability to 1 of today’s modern contented creators successful hunt of a flagship location, said existent property broker Nicole Mihalka of CBRE, who represents the seller.

She declined to sanction imaginable buyers but said she is showing the spot to new-media businesses who don’t contiguous themselves done accepted channels specified arsenic tv shows and alternatively trust connected societal media and the net to scope younger audiences.

Occidental Studios, which dates backmost to 1913, was erstwhile utilized by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks to marque soundless films.

(CBRE)

New media entrepreneurs whitethorn not often request soundstages, “but they similar the thought of having the history, the legacy” of a workplace linked to the aboriginal days of cinema, she said. It mightiness lend credibility to a marque and go a destination for promotional activities arsenic good arsenic being a spot to make content, she said. Mihalka envisions the abstraction being utilized for events for partners, sponsors and advertisers arsenic good arsenic property junkets for caller merchandise launches.

Entertainment businesses located adjacent see filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s Array Now, autarkic movie and accumulation institution Blumhouse Productions and movie and accumulation institution Rideback Ranch.

Neighborhoods eastbound of Hollywood specified arsenic Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Echo Park and Highland Park person go location to galore radical successful the amusement industry, which Mihalka hopes volition elevate the entreaty of Occidental Studios.

“We’ve been seeing movie and TV endowment heading this mode for a while,” she said, including executives who besides unrecorded successful those neighborhoods.

The proprietor of of Occidental Studios said it’s gotten harder for smaller studios to run successful the existent economical clime that includes contention from large autarkic workplace operators that person emerged successful caller decades.

“Once upon a time, you did not person multibillion-dollar planetary portfolio companies swimming successful the waters of Hollywood,” said Craig Darian, main enforcement of Occidental Entertainment Group Holdings Inc., citing Hudson Pacific Properties, Hackman Capital Partners and CIM Group. “They are not contented producers, but person a agelong past of providing services for aggregate tv shows and features.”

Competition present includes overseas studios successful specified countries arsenic Canada, Ireland and Australia, helium said. “When accumulation was truly robust and domiciled successful Los Angeles, it was overmuch easier to stay precise competitive.”

Another origin threatening the bottommost enactment for accepted studios is rapidly changing exertion utilized to make amusement including tools arsenic elemental arsenic lighting.

“You utilized to cognize that instrumentality would past for decades,” Darian said. “The caller tools for accumulation are becoming obsolete successful acold shorter order.”

Writers’ bungalows astatine Occidental Studios.

(CBRE)

Nevertheless, Darian said, the imaginable merchantability “is not motivated by distress oregon urgency. Nothing is driving the determination different than the timing of whether oregon not this remains to beryllium a applicable plus to support wrong our portfolio. If we get an connection astatine oregon supra the asking price, past we’re a seller.”

Darian said helium whitethorn besides question a semipermanent tenant to instrumentality implicit the studio.

Occidental Studios astatine 201 N. Occidental Blvd. comprises implicit 69,000 quadrate feet of buildings including 4 soundstages and enactment abstraction specified arsenic offices and dressing rooms.

It’s among the oldest continually operating studios successful Hollywood, utilized by pioneering filmmakers Cecil B. DeMille, D.W. Griffith and Pickford, who worked determination arsenic an histrion and filmmaker successful its aboriginal years. Pickford reportedly kept an flat connected the batch for years.

More precocious it has been utilized for tv accumulation for specified shows arsenic “Tales of the City,” “New Girl” and HBO’s thriller “Sharp Objects.”

Local tv accumulation country declined by 30.5% successful the archetypal 4th compared with the erstwhile year, according to helium nonprofit enactment FilmLA, which tracks sprout days successful the Greater Los Angeles region. All categories of TV accumulation were down, including dramas (-38.9%), comedies (-29.9%), world shows -(26.4%) and pilots (-80.3%).

Feature movie accumulation decreased by 28.9%, portion commercials were down by 2.1%, FilmLA said.