Warehouse Back in Show Biz--This Time With Livelier Cast

A vacant Burbank warehouse, first exposed to the bright lights of stardom when it was used to film “Return of the Living Dead” in 1984, is back in the entertainment business.

This time the entrepreneurs outnumber the zombies. David G. Trudeau, a former broadcasting executive, has turned the two-story structure into a kind of video industry shopping mall known as Burbank Production Plaza.

The 35,000-square-foot building at 801 South Main St., near Alameda Avenue, now has 11 tenants providing various video services such as duplication, editing and equipment rental. It also has two sound stages, dressing rooms for performers and a shop for building sets. You can even hire aerial video services--suitable for filming surfing, for example--or underwater video, in case you plan to raise the Titanic.

Being together apparently has advantages for the various firms.

“More business walks in the door,” said Neva Williams, who is a partner with her husband, Bruce, in a set design and construction firm called Independent Design that leases about 1,200 square feet in the building.

Exchange Discounts

Williams added that the neighboring companies also sometimes give one another discounts.

Trudeau, who spent 20 years with KTLA (Channel 5), said he formed a limited partnership that bought the warehouse in early 1985 for $1.6 million. The group spent another $600,000 on renovations to turn the aging structure into a one-stop shopping facility for video production.

Close to NBC Studios

The building is near the NBC Studios, and its Burbank location puts it in the middle of the film and video industries. It was built in 1951, Trudeau said, and it has a vaguely Art Deco exterior.

As a service center for video firms, he said, “I believe this is the first of its kind in the country.”

Some 8,000 square feet, or about one-fourth of the space, is occupied by Trudeau’s equipment rental company, Bexel Corp., which he founded five years ago after leaving KTLA. He said the remaining space was 90% leased before the facility opened last August. Tenants continued moving in while renovations were under way, Trudeau said. The last tenants finished moving in three months ago.

He said tenants pay an average of $1.25 per square foot per month, which a knowledgeable real estate source said is in line with other Burbank office space available for small firms. Trudeau added that tenants pay their own taxes, utilities and maintenance, amounting to less than 10% extra per month.

Sound Stage Rented

The large sound stage, measuring 40 feet by 50 feet, rents for $500 a day, while the smaller, measuring 20 feet by 20 feet, rents for $300 a day. The sound stages have been used to film a Mattel ad by Ogilvy & Mather, to make a McGraw-Hill video called “Car Repair for Dummies” and to film a segment for the Playboy Video Magazine, according to a Trudeau spokesman.

Trudeau, 43, is a North Dakota native whose family emigrated from Canada.

At KTLA, his jobs included engineering manager and director of labor relations. Bexel, he said, now grosses more than $2.5 million a year in equipment rentals.

Trudeau noted that the building came with two large, empty vaults, their combinations unknown. Trudeau hired a professional safecracker to open them and reset the combinations. The vaults are now used for tape storage.

And Trudeau denied that the building is haunted. He said it was used as a site for “Return of the Living Dead,” simply because it was empty and handy.