Carlyle purchases studio complex
The sprawling home of Manhattan Beach Studios, where movies and television shows including “CSI: Miami” and “Boston Legal” are filmed, has been sold to a Washington investment company for $150 million.
The studio, with 14 soundstages, nine production offices and the four-story Media Center office building, has been a hot property in recent years as the entertainment industry and local real estate boomed. Its value has appreciated $50 million in less than three years.
Tenants at the Media Center on Rosecrans Avenue include Skateboard World Industries Inc., the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals Inc. and television producer David E. Kelley’s Kelley Productions Inc.
Kelley has been the most high-profile tenant at the studio, where he has produced popular television series such as “Ally McBeal,” “Boston Public” and “The Practice.”
The entertainment production complex is a good fit with Carlyle Realty Partners’ commercial real estate portfolio, said Principal Ed Samek.
“We like the business,” he said. “Our goal is to improve the studio and continue to invest in it.”
Carlyle Realty bought the 22-acre studio complex on Rosecrans Avenue from Oaktree Capital Management.
Carlyle Realty is the real estate investment arm of Carlyle Group, a private equity investment firm.
Oaktree, a Los Angeles-based investment firm that oversees billions of dollars in pension funds, paid close to $100 million for the studio in 2004.
Manhattan Beach Studios was built in 1999 by Burbank-based Shamrock Holdings, the private investment vehicle for the Roy E. Disney family, at an estimated cost of $82 million.
Samek declined to say how much his company would invest on improvements. He did confirm that Santa Monica-based Raleigh Enterprises, which also operates Raleigh Studios Hollywood, will continue to manage the property.
The studio was able to attract a price of $263 per square foot because its facilities are fairly new and because of the rising value of land in the desirable South Bay, said real estate broker Bob Safai, whose company, Madison Partners, along with Staubach, represented the sellers.
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