Developers, investors, movie studios and support companies are working to build enough soundstages to meet increasing demand from newly launched streaming services, internet programmers and traditional production houses.
The epicenter of this building bonanza is the East San Fernando Valley, with major projects in Glendale, Burbank, Universal City, Pacoima and Sun Valley.
Greg Barsamian, head of studio services at brokerage CBRE Group, called soundstages “the bright shiny new toy in the (commercial real estate) toybox.”
The dearth of soundstages has garnered attention from major institutional investors. Blackstone, Stockbridge Capital, King Street Capital Management, AIMco and Hudson Pacific Properties Inc. all have skin in the East Valley market.
“As an entrepreneur, you have a vision but if you want to scale and make this a little bigger, you need to bring in some outside investment,” said Mikel Elliott of Quixote Studios, which sold 29 percent of his company to private equity firm Bison Capital Asset Management.
