NBC to Build New Facilities in Burbank

NBC on Friday announced a major expansion program that would nearly triple the amount of building space at its 44-acre studio lot in Burbank and provide a boost to the local economy from the booming entertainment industry.

The plan, which adheres to Burbank’s master plan for the media district, calls for six new studios, four 15-story office buildings and three six-story parking structures. The new facilities would boost the total square footage at the NBC lot from 845,000 to 2.36 million.

If all goes as planned, NBC will begin construction in late 1997. Network officials hope to open the first building in the first quarter of 2000, and to complete the project between 2010 and 2015.

NBC executives would not provide an estimate of the project’s cost, but the expansion is a clear signal that the top-rated network expects the surging market for television programming to continue through the coming decade. That growth already has forced NBC to send many of its productions to other studio facilities--a cumbersome and costly process--and to throw up a slew of mobile structures around its lot to accommodate its production needs.

“The biggest problem is . . . we are outgrowing the facilities we have here on site,” said John E. O’Neill, NBC’s vice president of facilities for the West Coast.

City officials predicted a positive response to the NBC plan, which follows studio expansions begun by its neighbors Walt Disney Co. and Warner Bros.

“This is a town that’s still going through the throes of having lost 14,000 Lockheed jobs,” said Burbank City Manager Bud Ovrom. “We’re making a lot of strides, and the studios are a big part of that. Now NBC is getting on the bandwagon.”

Jack Kyser, chief economist and director of research at the Economic Development Corp. of Los Angeles County, called NBC’s announcement “tremendous news.”

The network expansion is yet another sign that the Southern California economy is benefiting from the explosive growth in demand for U.S.-made movies and TV shows throughout the world, Kyser said.

“The bottom line is this means more tax revenue, more jobs.”

Bob Kramer, Burbank’s vice mayor, said the NBC expansion would create “the kind of jobs we want to have in Burbank. They’re high-paying jobs, it’s a clean industry. It’s exactly what we need.”

O’Neill did not foresee any immediate increase in network personnel, which number about 1,200. But the number of production workers, which currently averages about 1,200, probably would grow as the capability at the lot expands.

Not all reactions were positive.

“This is just horrendous,” said Laverne Thomas of the Rancho Providencia Homeowners Assn. in Burbank. “We put up with the dirt from Disney, the noise from Disney. No one is enforcing the agreement they have for start hours. Now you tell me, who is going to control these things?”

Unlike Disney and Warner, the NBC property does not abut any residential neighborhoods. But one of Thomas’ main concerns is that the additional traffic generated by the development would tie up Alameda Avenue, the main thoroughfare through the media district. There will be a spillover to residential streets, she said.

O’Neill said he is planning to soon hire consulting firms to address environmental and traffic issues and to prepare the necessary reports and studies. He plans to begin meeting with homeowners groups next week and present two choices for the configuration of the new development. The main difference between the two plans is that one would set the office buildings farther back from Alameda.