Soundstages Multiply in Santa Clarita Valley

LA North Studios has signed a five-year lease to take more than 113,000 square feet at The Center at Needham Ranch in Santa Clarita.LA North plans to convert the space into a soundstage hub that will open early next year. It is the company’s third production facility in the city.LA North co-founders Anthony Syracuse and John Prabhu said that the company’s facilities have become a preferred location for filming. Clients include Warner Bros. Entertainment, Amazon Studios, Showtime Networks, Netflix Inc., Walt Disney Co. and NBCUniversal, a unit of Comcast Corp.

“All of our soundstages are fully committed, and this expansion allows us to meet our clients’ needs today and into the future,” Syracuse and Prabhu said in a statement.The 113,640 square feet of Class A industrial space features 36-foot clear height, 14 dock positions and 204 car parking spaces. With Building 5 at Needham Ranch, LA North Studios now has more than 277,000 square feet of production space in Santa Clarita Valley.LA North Studios plans to convert the building into soundstages, as a companion to its other facilities in the Santa Clarita Valley. Its main campus in the city features five soundstages, a fully operational on-site construction mill and production space totaling 143,000 square feet.Holly Schroeder, chief executive of the Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corp., said the valley has a rich history in the entertainment industry.

“Demand for soundstages is at an all-time high as the industry rebounds after the COVID-19 shutdown, and the state-of-the-art industrial developments in the SCV are a natural fit,” Schroeder said in a statement. “We are delighted with the continued success and rapid growth of LA North Studios.” CBRE Group Inc.’s Craig Peters and Doug Sonderegger represented Trammell Crow Co. and Clarion Partners, the developers of Center at Needham Ranch, in the transaction. Trammell Crow is a subsidiary of CBRE.Attempts to reach Peters and Sonderegger were not successful but in a statement Peters said that the lease with LA North Studios validates that Needham Ranch is the perfect location for entertainment-related companies.“LA North Studios is exactly the type of company we were hoping to find for The Center and is an ideal fit for the project,” Peters said in the statement. “Their new stages will be able to accommodate the growing demand from content creators to find space within the studio zone.” With some of the only 36-foot clear height buildings in the market, the space at Needham Ranch is a significant advantage for studio and production uses, Peters added.

“In addition to the ceilings, the park-like environment will continue to make the Center at Needham Ranch a key target for entertainment and production occupiers,” he continued in the statement.

Other tenants at the business park include warehouse space for Amazon.com Inc., beverage manufacturer DrinkPak LLC and Illumination Dynamics, an entertainment industry equipment company.