Culver Studios Finds New Bicoastal Owners

Culver Studios, a 17-acre complex where some of the most famous movies in history were made, is expected to change hands Monday as part of a $130-million real estate deal.

A group of El Segundo and New York investors is buying the studios from Sony Corp., which put the historic property on the market in 2002. Neither party would discuss the transaction, but real estate sources said the buyers would pay close to $80 million for the studios and $50 million for an adjacent office complex on Washington Boulevard.

The buyers include New York securities firm Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc., El Segundo real estate investment firm Pacific Coast Capital Partners and its affiliate, Pacifica Venture Partners.

Sony is expected to remain the main tenant at Culver Studios and in the 150,000-square-foot office complex at 9050 Washington Blvd. that was built in 1996. Sony still will own its main studio a few blocks to the west. The new owners plan a 30,000-square-foot expansion of the office properties.

Culver City Mayor Alan Corlin said the buyers “have made a commitment to stay here and grow ... and have committed themselves to maintaining the same kind of quality and same kind of product” as Sony. Lehman and Pacifica also have plans for an East Coast complex -- a 15-story, $375-million studio and office compound in Manhattan called Studio City New York.

Culver Studios consists of 14 soundstages that are rented for film and TV shoots, a New York street location, a historic mansion and other production facilities. The studios were built in 1919 by movie pioneer Thomas Ince.

After Ince died in 1924, the studios were purchased by legendary silent filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille, who built gigantic sets on the back lot. Among them was a replica of the streets of Jerusalem that was used in the 1927 biblical blockbuster “The King of Kings.” The sets were used in many other movies, including the Skull’s Island sequence in 1933’s “King Kong.” In 1939 they were set ablaze by producer David O. Selznick to re-create the Civil War burning of Atlanta in “Gone With the Wind.”

RKO bought the studios in 1930, and Joseph Kennedy, father of President John F. Kennedy, served as one of the studio heads. According to the official studio history, it was during the elder Kennedy’s tenure at what is now Culver Studios that he had his infamous love affair with actress Gloria Swanson.

Legend has it that Kennedy built her a private dressing room as a gift. Only much later, and after the affair ended, did Swanson discover that Kennedy had used her money to pay for it.

Other movies made at the studios during Hollywood’s golden era included “A Star Is Born” (1937), “Citizen Kane” (1941) and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Spellbound” (1945).

Howard Hughes took over RKO in 1950 but failed to create many memorable movies. Desilu Productions Inc., the company owned by comedian Lucille Ball and her husband, Desi Arnaz, bought the lot in 1956. They made it a television outpost where series such as “The Andy Griffith Show,” “Hogan’s Heroes” and “Lassie” were filmed.

The 28-acre back lot was sold in 1968. A partnership of veteran television executive Grant Tinker and media giant Gannett Co. bought the property in 1986 and sold it to Sony in 1991.