CBSViacom Looks to Sell Radford Studio

ViacomCBS wants to sell its historic Radford studio lot in Studio City for an undisclosed price, according to media reports.The sale of the property will be brokered by real estate firm JLL, George Cheeks, CBS chief executive, told employees on Monday about the sale via an internal email obtained by trade publication The Hollywood Reporter.The property’s official name is CBS Studio Center, located at 4024 Radford Ave.The news of the sale of the lot, which has been in use since 1928 and was the location of “Gilligan’s Island,” “Seinfeld,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and other television series, comes a week after ViacomCBS said it would sell its New York headquarters, commonly referred to as Black Rock, to Harbor Group International for $760 million.“Similar to our announcement last week regarding the sale of Black Rock in New York, this (Studio City sale) aligns with our strategy to divest non-core assets like real estate and direct that value to priorities such as creating more of our best-in-class content,” Cheeks added in the email.The sale of the 40-acre Radford lot and its 18 soundstages comes at a time when studio space is at a premium in the Los Angeles market as streaming companies such as Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. have moved to film shows for their networks.“I know even the possibility of a sale raises lots of questions, especially for those who work at Radford. I can tell you that regardless of whether Radford is sold, we will ensure we have the studio capacity to support our leading broadcast and production businesses,” Cheeks told employees in the email.In 2018, then-CBS Corp. sold off its 25-acre Television City facility in Los Angeles to Hackman Capital Partners for $750 million.