Retail Complex Set for TV Studios

The shuttered KWHY television studios in Hollywood have been purchased by a Los Angeles developer who plans to turn them into stores and possibly apartments.

Champion Development Group bought the blighted five-building campus at the northeast corner of Sunset Boulevard and St. Andrews Place for $2.4 million and plans to spend an additional $5 million in upgrades.

The property last served as the production and office facilities for Spanish-language TV station KWHY Channel 22, which was acquired by Telemundo Communications Group in June 2001. Telemundo merged KWHY with its other Southern California TV station, Glendale-based KVEA 52, leaving the Hollywood property vacant.

The buildings were erected in the 1920s and 1930s, said Robert Champion, principal of Champion Development. The former KWHY sound stages started as garages and have high wood-trussed ceilings that are often considered desirable by tenants.

Champion said he plans to rent the space to retailers that would appeal to nearby residents, such as a drugstore or a furniture store that would attract shoppers from the Home Depot across the street. Apartments may be added to the 18,600-square-foot property’s second level, he said.

“We definitely see Hollywood reemerging and thought this property would make a great opportunity to do retail or retail with a residential component,” Champion said.