REPORT: Netflix In Talks To Buy LA's Radford Studio Center For Discount
Netflix is in talks to buy a Los Angeles-area studio production property at a hefty discount.
The Studio City property at 4024, 4064 and 4200 N. Radford Ave. was handed over to its lenders earlier this year after owner Hackman Capital Partners defaulted on the loan.
The lenders, led by Goldman Sachs Group, are still in discussions with Netflix, and a final price hasn't been decided, unnamed sources told Bloomberg, but it is expected to be less than a third of the production facility's last sale price.
The Radford lot sold to Hackman Capital Partners and Square Mile Capital Management for $1.85B in 2021. The price tag Goldman Sachs and Netflix are discussing is between $330M and $400M, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing unnamed sources.
Radford Studio Center was 61% leased as of September, with roughly half of the remaining leases slated to expire by the end of this year, according to Bloomberg.
Studio properties soared in popularity shortly after the onset of the pandemic as demand for content rose, but they have since struggled with occupancy as industry shifts have changed the volume and location of film and television production.
These challenges have butted up against an uptick in interest rates that has left owners in difficult positions when it is time to refinance.
Netflix leases more than 722K SF of office space through September 2031 in full buildings owned by Hudson Pacific Properties in Hollywood, according to financial disclosures. It pays $27M in annualized rent.
It also leases soundstage space at the Hackman-owned Raleigh Studios on Melrose Avenue, where it is an anchor tenant through 2031, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Hackman had in the works a $1B plan to add up to 25 soundstages, 735K SF of support office space and 700K SF of additional office space to the property.
The Radford studio lot has about 360K SF of soundstages, about 356K SF of production support space and roughly 564K SF of production and general office space, according to public records.
