Silver screen to self-storage for Columbia College Hollywood

A New York-based investment firm is buying land from a film school in Tarzana, with plans to convert it into a self-storage facility.

Palatine Capital Partners has filed plans with the city to renovate an existing building of about 50,000 square feet and construct an additional 50,000 or so of space on the site, with the combined total intended for self-storage, according to planning documents.

Terms of the deal were undisclosed, and Palatine did not respond to a request for comment.

Plans for the redevelopment of the property include 30 parking spaces and an office to go with the storage units.

Located at 18618 West Oxnard Street in the Tarzana district of the San Fernando Valley, the site is currently owned and being used by Columbia College Hollywood — a private, for-profit trade school for film, visual effects and graphic design.

Columbia College did not respond to requests for comment. It’s unclear whether the school will continue to operate in a different location or will close altogether.

Last month, it shut down its satellite program that had occupied 50,000 square feet in the Loop district of Chicago’s downtown. The closure was due to “challenges created by the pandemic, including declining enrollment,” the school’s president and CEO, Bill Smith, said. Smith added that the Los Angeles campus would remain open.

While Zoom and the rise of online school during the pandemic may have disrupted traditional education, self-storage has become a popular investment choice.

Palatine has invested in a number of self-storage facilities across the U.S. In Los Angeles, the firm is also planning a 73,000-square-foot facility at 1785 East Vernon Avenue.