BLT Enterprises Bets On Filming Comeback With New Studio Lease

At a time when the slowdown in Los Angeles's entertainment business has been in the spotlight, real estate company BLT Enterprises will expand its soundstage offerings in the heart of Hollywood. 

"We thought this was a good opportunity, in spite of what's going on in the entertainment industry," BLT President Rob Solomon said. "It's a bet on the future. We're hopefully at the bottom of the market in production, and it's going to get better."

The stage, called Soundstage 6, is about 10K SF and sits at the northwest corner of Lillian Way and Romaine Street in Hollywood. BLT is leasing the space, though it declined to say how long of a lease it is. 

A Google Street View of buildings on the block, including the one at 1005 Lillian Way where BLT has opened its new space, shows the Quixote Studios logo on the building and Quixote trucks in the parking lots. 

Public filings online link the property to the owners of the brand. Hudson Pacific Properties, which owns Quixote, indicated in its first-quarter earnings call that "one time lease termination fees associated with Quixote cost-cutting initiatives" in that period, in the form of early lease terminations and fleet reductions, would save the company $14M. 

A block north of the new soundstage is BLT Studios, where BLT owns and operates four soundstages. Those stages are smaller than the new one, and Solomon said they previously had to turn down potential clients because they did not have something in the size range of the new stage. 

BLT’s soundstages are used for things like commercials, promotional campaigns and photo shoots instead of films or TV shows, Solomon said.

Many in the entertainment industry point to high costs as the reason why California is losing production to other states and countries. But while filming can happen elsewhere, Solomon said some of the important ancillary parts of the entertainment machine are still happening in Los Angeles. 

"A lot of the talent, while they're willing to go out of state to actually film a show, they don't want to go out of state to do a promotional campaign, and so that's where our business continues to thrive," Solomon said. The stages also host commercial and photo shoots, Solomon said. 

A recent weekly report of users at the property included a promotional campaign shoot for a soda brand and a recording session for a podcast's YouTube show. 

Solomon estimates that he's leasing Soundstage 6 for 35% to 50% of what he would have paid for space at the peak of the market. 

"This was an opportunity at the bottom of the market to get some more real estate and stage availability," Solomon said. 

The market is far off its peak in a marketwide phenomenon. In Q1 alone, on-location production in Greater LA declined by 22.4%, according to a report from FilmLA, the nonprofit that tracks film permits in LA city and county. The industry has had dreary numbers for a couple of years, as the pandemic bled into actor and writer strikes and an industrywide shift in the volume of shows and films that get made as well as the business in general. 

Solomon said his business is "significantly" down year-over-year, but despite the choppy waters, he sees brighter days ahead. 

"We still have conviction that business will get better, and we have the opportunity to meet that demand as it rises again," Solomon said.