Hackman Capital to pay $1.8B for ViacomCBS’ Studio Center

Hackman Capital Partners is adding an iconic Los Angeles studio complex to its growing portfolio of studio space.

The firm and partner Square Mile Capital Management LLC agreed to pay $1.8 billion for ViacomCBS’s CBS Studio Center in Studio City, according to the Wall Street Journal.

ViacomCBS has been shopping the 38-acre production lot since August. Hackman and Square Mile beat out around a dozen other potential buyers.

It is going to cost them about half a billion more than the sum insiders thought the property would garner — an indication of demand for production properties. The tenant base for those properties is shifting increasingly toward streaming content providers, including Apple, Netflix, and Amazon.

The deal hasn’t yet been finalized, but the parties are expected to sign a contract soon, according to the Journal.

CBS Studio Center includes 18 soundstages and more than 210,000 square feet of office space.

The property is one of several studio complexes that Hollywood institutions have listed in recent years, most of which are being scooped up by private equity firms.

Hudson Pacific Properties — now partnered with Blackstone in its L.A. studio investments — has acquired about 1.2 million square feet of soundstages since 2008.

Worthe Real Estate Group is working with Warner Bros. on a redevelopment of its Burbank Studios property.

The deal would be Hackman’s second major purchase for a CBS property. The firm bought the 25-acre Television City in the Fairfax District three years ago for $750 million from CBS Corporation. That deal came a year before the CBS re-merged with Viacom to form ViacomCBS.

Hackman earlier this year unveiled a $1.3 billion redevelopment plan for the Television City.

Hackman Capital has amassed a sprawling portfolio of production facilities, campuses, and office space over the last several years. The company’s holdings were estimated to be worth around $4 billion at the beginning of 2021.

[WSJ] — Dennis Lynch