Hackman Plans $1B Expansion of Los Angeles Studio

Hackman Capital Partners continues to expand its bulging portfolio in the red-hot film and TV production sector, now worth more than $8B.

The Los Angeles-based company unveiled another mega-project this week, a $1B redevelopment of the Radford production lot formerly owned by ViacomCBS.

Hackman is planning to build 25 soundstages encompassing 2.2M SF on the lot at 4024 Radford Avenue, as well as 1.4M SF of associated office space, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

Hackman bought the Radford Ave. studio, then encompassing 18 soundstages and 210K SF of offices, in 2021 in a $1.85B sale-leaseback deal with ViacomCBS, which continues to use the studio for two of its local broadcast affiliates in Los Angeles, KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV.

In addition to the expansion of soundstages at the site, which is now known as Radford Studio Center, Hackman is planning to build 300K SF of storage space for wardrobes and other Film and TV support services, 725K SF of production offices and an additional 700K SF of office space available for rent, the Times reported.

Hackman has rapidly expanded its studio portfolio in the past two years as the voracious appetite of streaming services for new film and TV content has created fueled the development of soundstages in the traditional production hubs and Los Angeles and New York, as well as emerging top tier locations including New Jersey and Georgia.

Last month, Hackman purchased for a 70% stake in Raleigh Studios, a century-old 500K SF Hollywood facility located at 5300 Melrose Ave, and Saticoy Studios, a 50K SF facility in Van Nuys.

The Raleigh stake was purchased for $140M, or about $400 per SF, from Raleigh Enterprises in a transaction financed with a $90M loan from Bank of the West. The Van Nuys studio also was sold by Raleigh for an undisclosed price. Hackman has been operating both facilities since 2021.

Raleigh Studios, which opened in 1915, has 13 soundstages encompassing 310K SF and 186K SF of office space.

Hackman’ redevelopment of LA’s Television City thrust the company into the middle of last year’s recent Los Angeles mayoral election.

During his campaign for mayor, developer Rick Caruso—who eventually lost to Rep. Karen Bass—touted his support for bringing film and TV jobs to Los Angeles and promised to make it harder for opponents of film production development projects to lodge “frivolous” objections under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

However, in September, a shopping center owned by Caruso next door to Television City—known as The Grove—filed a 374-page letter challenging a draft environmental impact report (DEIR) analysis of the Television City project it said was “fatally flawed,” according to a report in Variety