Hollywood studio project garners $35M loan to buy land

Grammy Award winner Philip Lawrence and his partners have bought the first land for his plan to build a 500,000-square-foot studio campus in Hollywood, using a new $35 million acquisition loan from Parkview Financial.

CMNTY Culture, run by entertainment business manager Thomas St John and Lawrence, used the money from Parkview to buy three parcels on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Highland Avenue for a total of $44 million, according to a release from Parkview Financial on Monday.

Financial terms of the loan were not disclosed.

The $500 million CMNTY Culture project will include about 430,000 square feet of office space, an auditorium for concerts, as well as studio and production space and a restaurant. Plans for the project were filed with the city of L.A. in March.

CMNTY Culture bought the three parcels for the development from Musicians Institute, a private college for music coursework, and an entity linked to Michael Troeger. Last year, the firm bought the first parcel for the project for $15.9 million from ESP Gakuen, a music college based in Japan.

Developers are pushing forward on plans to build soundstages and studio space, despite rising interest rates and uncertainty among streaming companies like Netflix, which has posted huge losses over the last year and is hemorrhaging subscribers.

Bardas Investment Group is currently building five soundstages across L.A. under its Echelon Studios brand, as well as five other commercial developments focused on media and entertainment tenants.

In May, East End Capital bought a 15-acre site in the Arts District for $240 million, where it plans to build up to 17 soundstages and up to 400,000 square feet of office space.