Financing Lined Up for Studio Project
Financing has been secured for Los Angeles Center Studios, a long-awaited sound stage complex to be built on the site of Unocal Corp.’s former downtown headquarters, a local developer said Wednesday.
Construction on the 10-acre facility, which had been stalled in the planning stage for about a year and a half, should begin in the coming weeks with the demolition of several small buildings, said the development’s architect, Gary Bastien of Irvine.
Developer Smith & Hricik Development Co. plans to build six 18,000-square-foot sound stages and two structures with dressing rooms on the site of 40-year-old building, just west of the Harbor Freeway on 5th Street. The high-rise, vacated when Unocal moved to El Segundo in 1995, will remain intact as a shooting location, Bastien said.
Two low-rise wings of the Unocal building, which contain office space, a 500-seat screening room and a two-story commissary, will also be renovated, said Jack Kyser, chief economist of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
“Downtown is already the most popular location shot in Southern California,” Kyser said. “This just makes it easier because you [will] have a base and more amenities.” Kyser predicts the center will also provide a much-needed economic stimulus for the often-overlooked section of downtown west of the Harbor Freeway.
Although developer Stephan Smith acknowledged that his company has lined up the financial backing necessary to start the project, he declined to discuss further details until next week, when a formal announcement is scheduled.
Several uses had been proposed for the vacant property in recent years, including a large office complex and a arena for the Lakers and Kings professional sports teams. A year and a half ago, with television production booming and vacancy shrinking at the estimated 250 Los Angeles area sound stage complexes, the developers decided instead to target entertainment firms, which had been shooting in such communities as Culver City, Hollywood and Santa Clarita.
But getting the project off the ground was an ordeal. Finding a lender willing to fund construction without a major studio tenant on-board has been extremely difficult, Smith said.
“It’s not a well-understood type of real estate,” he said. “Most [lenders] want to see a long-term lease.”
Although the former Unocal site has been a location for such major films as “The X-Files,” “The Game” and “Lethal Weapon 4,” no major studios have agreed to settle down there, and industry experts say few independent production companies are capable of committing to a space for more than a year.
A South Bay competitor has been more successful. Fox Studios agreed to a five-year lease on 11 buildings at Manhattan Beach Studios last October. So far, five of those stages have been built, and are being used to tape the Fox shows “Ally McBeal” and “The Practice.” “There has been a production explosion and that means a need for more sound stages,” says Patti Archiletto, director of the California Film Commission. “The existing sound stage base is leased out for the foreseeable future.”
