CBS interviewed brokers to sell LA campus

From TRD LA: “This building has enough concrete in it to build 28 miles of four-lane highway,” Edward R. Murrow proclaimed in a 1953 CBS special about “Television City,” the network’s mammoth complex in Los Angeles’ Fairfax District.

Over the next six decades, TV City would became an iconic venue that hosted shows such as “The Price is Right,” “All in the Family,” and “Dancing with the Stars.”

But its status as a center of entertainment and culture may be in flux. CBS Corporation has been in discussions with brokerages to shop the complex at 7800 Beverly Boulevard, The Real Deal has learned.

After interviewing more than five firms for the roughly 25-acre property on Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue — which has about 1 million square feet of studio and office space, including eight stages — CBS recently narrowed the search down to two, sources said.

The network hasn’t indicated if it intends to vacate the property entirely, sources said. The nature of what will be marketed — a full sale, a sale-leaseback or a ground lease — remains unclear.

Representatives for CBS did not return multiple requests for comment.

CBS subleases much of the space at TV City to other production outfits, sources said. The network may be looking to consolidate its own operations at its Studio City campus at 4024 Radford Avenue, they said.

Though the discussions are in a preliminary stage, interested buyers are said to be circling. At least two major developers looked to talk with CBS once chatter about the broker interviews began to spread, sources said.

TV City does not appear to be entitled for new development. The campus, designed by architect Gin Wong at Pereira & Luckman, was built in 1952 on the former site of Gilmore Stadium. CBS acquired the land from the A.F. Gilmore Company for $1.2 million in 1949.