LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The owner of CBS Television City is planning about $1.25 billion in improvements and expansions to the historic production facility -- increasing the number of sound stages from eight to at least 15 as the need for more stages grows in the streaming era, it was reported today.
The Los Angeles Times said that Hackman Capital Partners, which owns the 25-acre facility at Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, will apply Friday for city approval to redevelop the 25-acre site.
The additions and improvements, if approved, would also include production-support facilities and offices that would be available for rent, the newspaper reported. In all, the additions would entail more than 1 million square feet of space.
Plans also call for a new commissary and more than four acres for production base camps.
According to the newspaper, to make room for the new facilities, parking would be converted from surface facilities to garage structures. In addition, two stages built in the 1990s on the east side of the lot would be razed.
Demand for sound stages is on the rise, with existing stages largely booked year-round, the Times said.
A subsidiary of the Hackman company bought Television City for $750 million from CBS in 2019, but CBS continues to produce programming there. At the time of the sale, the Television City site was seen as a possible location for new housing as well as hotels, shopping and offices.
Instead, the site's future now calls for the entertainment expansions.
The owners told the Times that construction could be completed in about two years once the city approves the proposed expansion. Approval could take 18 months.
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