UPDATED, Jan. 27, 2022, 11:06 a.m.: Netflix has bought the former site of a Denny’s restaurant from the latter’s parent company for $25 million, records show.
Located at 1522 Van Ness Avenue, the property is a triangular block on Sunset Boulevard, alongside the Hollywood Freeway.
It’s also across the street from Sunset Bronson Studios, Hudson Pacific Properties’ massive studio complex. Netflix has occupied space at the studio, which Hudson Pacific bought from Warner Brothers for $125 million, since 2016. The Los Gatos-based streaming service currently leases around 560,000 square feet of offices, soundstages and other support space there.
It’s unclear what Netflix is planning to do with the property, which has been razed since the firm purchased it. Before that, it housed a 5,600-square-foot Denny’s, built in 1976, with a spacious parking lot on a roughly one-acre plot of land. Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The purchase comes as demand for space to film and produce content continues to soar. While investment firms have begun to take advantage of this demand and pour money into studio real estate, Netflix’s recent deal signals a potential shift to content producers owning their own real estate.
It’s not the first property Netflix has bought in Hollywood. In May 2020, the firm spent $14.4 million to buy a former movie theater at 6708 Hollywood Boulevard, records show.
Apple is also planning to build a 500,000-square-foot office property in Culver City, after spending $162 million to buy a mix of retail and industrial buildings across National, Washington and Venice Boulevards. Apple is also growing its streaming operations from a base in the Los Angeles area.
In addition to buying property, Netflix has been busy across Los Angeles during the pandemic, subleasing space at an office property at 627 North Larchmont Boulevard in April 2020, records show, and taking over the Bay Theatre at Rick Caruso’s Palisades Village.