ABC Now Owns Hollywood Complex : Turner to Move Into Historic Studio

Turner Broadcasting System is planning to consolidate its Los Angeles-area television operations in a historic Hollywood radio and television studio complex now owned by American Broadcasting Co.

Turner Broadcasting, the Atlanta-based television concern founded and headed by Ted Turner, has an option to buy the 122,000-square-foot complex at Vine Street and Fountain Avenue for about $12 million, according to Alan Friedberg, partner in Hospitality Construction Corp., a developer. Turner Broadcasting expects to buy the complex in about 30 days and to spend another $8 million renovating it, said Friedberg, whose firm is working for Turner on the transaction.

About half of the Hollywood complex is office space, and the remainder is four large studios and two small ones, Friedberg said.

The complex was built in the 1930s by wealthy businessman and broadcaster Don Lee for his radio network (later affiliated with CBS), as well as his Cadillac dealership, according to broadcast history buffs at ABC. Later, the building housed the original television studio homes of KCBS-TV, Channel 2; KHJ-TV, Channel 9, and KCET-TV, Channel 28.

Before ABC acquired it in 1970 from real estate investor Saul Pick, the complex was used for producing television shows such as “Barney Miller,” “The Dating Game” and “The Newlywed Game,” an ABC spokesman said. He said ABC’s on-air promotion department used the complex until last January, and the network made the complex its headquarters for the 1984 Summer Olympics.

A Turner Broadcasting executive here confirmed that the company’s board approved the Hollywood relocation project last week at its meeting in Atlanta.

A Turner Broadcasting spokeswoman, however, said it was “premature” to announce the project. She said the company has long-range plans to consolidate its facilities all over the United States. The ABC spokesman here said he did not know of the projected sale.

Turner Broadcasting contemplates using the complex as a home for its Turner Entertainment (formerly MGM) film library, the Los Angeles bureau of Cable News Network and local offices of its fledgling Turner Network Television.

Also coming under the same roof, sources said, are syndication and advertising sales operations for Turner Broadcasting and TNT.

Presently, the 330 Turner employees in the Los Angeles area are scattered in leased space at four locations. Of those, about 75 are in Turner Entertainment’s finance, tax and legal operations in Culver City, who are due to be relocated by the end of the year to Atlanta.