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KABC-TV Will Move Studios to Glendale Center

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SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

After searching for several years and evaluating 63 sites around Los Angeles, KABC-TV Channel 7 Monday announced plans to move its television studios to Glendale.

The future site will be near the interchange of Interstate 5 and California 134, in the Grand Central Business Centre owned by ABC’s parent corporation, the Walt Disney Co.

“We’re currently in an old facility occupying 60,000 square feet spread out over seven buildings,” said Arnold J. Kleiner, president and general manager of KABC. “It’s very hard to act as one unit.”

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Construction on the new facility--which is planned to cover more than 100,000 square feet--is scheduled to begin in spring 1999 and be completed by fall 2000, Kleiner said.

Location and space were the primary factors that led KABC to Glendale.

“Glendale gives great freeway access, which is essential to cover news,” Kleiner said.

The studio’s Hollywood location on Prospect Avenue, which ABC has occupied since the late ‘40s, will be used to expand other network programs and develop future projects.

The Hollywood lot is shared by the ABC Los Angeles news bureau, the television show “Good Morning America West Coast,” the soap operas “General Hospital” and “Port Charles,” as well as several administrative divisions.

The 96-acre Grand Central Business Centre was purchased in June by Disney, which occupies 60% of the property. It includes 70 low-rise buildings and about 1.8 million square feet of space. KABC will join Walt Disney Imagineering, Disney Interactive and other divisions of the company at the site.

The center is located in the 750-acre San Fernando Corridor Redevelopment Project Area, which was designed in 1992 to encourage growth and investment by attracting entertainment, media and technology industries to the city.

The Disney property is across the street from the 12-acre DreamWorks SKG animation studio, which is slated to occupy its first building on the site this month, said Jeanne Armstrong, Glendale’s director of redevelopment.

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Armstrong predicted that KABC’s relocation will create jobs in ancillary industries.

“There are a lot of spinoffs that want to locate near DreamWorks, but not a lot of space in the area right now,” Armstrong said, adding that industrial and office space vacancy rates are currently below 5%.

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