NBC Plans to Triple Space at Studio Lot

NBC on Friday announced a major expansion program that would nearly triple the amount of building space at its 44-acre studio lot and provide yet another 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 by 2010 to 2015.

NBC executives would not provide an estimate of the dollar value of the project, 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 has already 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 American-made movies and TV shows throughout the world, Kyser said.

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

And 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 currently number approximately 1,200. But the number of production workers, which currently averages about 1,200, would probably grow as the capability at the lot expands.

Not all reactions were positive, however.

“This is just horrendous,” said Laverne Thomas of the Rancho Providencia Homeowners Assn. in Burbank.

“We’re putting up with so much crap already. 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 doesn’t abut any residential neighborhoods. But one of Thomas’ main concerns is that the additional traffic generated by the new development would tie up Alameda Avenue, the main thoroughfare through the media district. There will be a spillover to residential streets, she said, and the Ventura Freeway “is going to be hell on wheels.”

O’Neill said he is planning to hire consulting firms soon to address environmental and traffic issues, and to prepare the necessary reports and studies. He plans to begin meeting with homeowners groups starting next week, at which time he will present to them 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.

A public hearing will probably be held in the second week of July, O’Neill said.

Despite the concerns, Ted McConkey, a onetime Burbank homeowners advocate who was elected to the City Council last year, said his reaction to the NBC proposal was mostly positive.

“It’s a good project,” McConkey said, although he predicted that there would be many changes made to the current proposal to mitigate the impact of traffic, congestion, noise and pollution.

Ovrom also said the NBC plan should receive a good reception because it conforms to the master plan for the media district adopted by the city in 1991. That plan, which addresses how growth will be implemented in the district over a 20-year period, was also the guiding force behind the major expansions begun by Disney in 1992 and Warner Bros. in 1995.

Both those studio expansions are well underway. Disney has built about 265,000 square feet of the 2 million square feet called for under its master plan, including a new feature animation building.

Warner Bros. has constructed nearly 500,000 square feet of the 3.3 million square feet proposed in its master plan.

O’Neill said that NBC now has no choice but to expand. Its seven sound stages are fully booked with such productions as “The Tonight Show,” “Saved by the Bell: The New Class,” a new game show and a new Aaron Spelling soap opera “Sunset Beach.” The studio where “Later with Greg Kinnear” is produced is doubling as the production facility for a new syndicated show NBC is producing with New World Entertainment, “Access Hollywood.”

In addition, three NBC television productions are filmed at other studios, which has added to the network’s costs and created logistical problems because of the need to transport sets and crews.

In the past 1 1/2 years, NBC has erected nearly 30,000 square feet of trailers on its lot to house production of television movies. “That’s not the way we can keep on going,” O’Neill said.

The appetite for production space is expected to continue growing, O’Neill said, as production companies throughout the entertainment industry seek quality studio space. But he foresees NBC’s in-house production arm being the biggest user of the new studios, in part because of the repeal last year of a law that restricted networks from owning the shows they broadcast.

No production would be interrupted during the construction, O’Neill said, although the plan calls for the demolition of about 200,000 square feet of existing buildings. The first building to be erected would be an office tower on the west side of the lot that would house the network administration.

A number of factors, including market demand, will determine how quickly the studio facilities and other offices would be started, he said. The offices to be built on the east side of the lot would initially be leased to other media concerns. O’Neill said he doesn’t have a tenant lined up, but given the 3% office vacancy rate in the media district, he foresees no problem with that.

Eventually NBC might take over the leased buildings to accommodate its future growth, he said.

O’Neill stressed that the proposed expansion is far different than the ill-fated NBC Plaza project, which the network abandoned in 1993 after failing to secure financing. That proposal called for NBC and its development partner to build a $200-million office complex adjacent to the network’s Burbank lot.

NBC no longer has any interest in that property, O’Neill said. But, he added that he had learned a lesson from his experience with that earlier project. “A project like this does not go forward unless you work with the community.”