NBCUniversal joins studio expansion craze

Company to add eight sound stages at Universal Studios lot

NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell, Universal Studios Lot in LA (Wikipedia, nbcuniversal.com, universalstudioslot.com)
NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell, Universal Studios Lot in LA (Wikipedia, nbcuniversal.com, universalstudioslot.com)

There’s no end in sight to the studio craze that’s being driven by the proliferation of streaming services in need of production sites in Los Angeles.

NBCUniversal is the latest company to jump on the bandwagon, planning to add eight sound stages to its Universal Studios lot in the Universal City district just north of Hollywood, according to the Los Angeles Times. The publication reports that Bastien & Associates will design the stages to include rooftop solar panels. Once construction is completed, the lot will include a total of 37 stages.

The addition of soundstages is one of several real estate projects NBCUniversal has going on across its lots under a plan to spend $1 billion on upgrades overall in the next five years. The company is creating an employee center with a commissary, sit-down restaurant, theaters and event space. That employee center is expected to be ready in late 2023.

The company also is working on a 400,000-square-foot office campus on the backlot, which the employee center is part of. An 11-story office building that’s part of the development will have 331,000 square feet of space and is expected to be completed in 2023.

The studio space craze is being fueled by the growing popularity of streaming services like HBO Max and Amazon Prime, which need places to conduct television and film production. Many companies turn to established lots to help ease the process.

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East End Capital recently filed for a permit to add 72,000 square feet of space to its film studio campus in Glendale. The plans will see East End build a pair of one-story soundstages and an office building to add to the two soundstages it created by converting them from existing buildings.

Additionally, Worthe Real Estate Group is trying to turn the Warner Bros. Ranch Lot in Burbank into the largest studio development in the country, planning to build 926,000 square feet of new space on the property, including 16 soundstages.

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