John Mayer and Joseph McGinty Nichol have agreed to buy the Jim Henson Company Lot in Hollywood, founded a century ago by Charlie Chaplin, for $40 million.
The singer-songwriter and movie director known as McG cut a deal to purchase the former A&M Studios at 1416 North La Brea Avenue, the Los Angeles Times reported. The seller was the Henson family.
McG and Mayer, who has an office in the 80,000-square-foot studios, negotiated for months to buy the 5-acre property from the family of the late Muppets creator, unidentified sources told the newspaper. It’s not clear when the sale will close.
The pending deal was confirmed by Larry Solters, who represents Mayer. “John Mayer and McG are under contract to purchase Henson Studios,” he said in an email to the Times.
Solters didn’t say what the buyers plan to do with the movie and television studio that’s now mostly a music recording studio.
John Mayer, a seven-time Grammy Award winner, is behind such hits as “Waiting for the World to Change.” McG, a former record producer, has also produced and directed such movies as “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle,” “Terminator Salvation” and “Uglies.”
Chaplin founded the studio lot in 1917 at the southeast corner of La Brea and Sunset Boulevard, where he built a Tudor-style English village and shot “The Kid,” “The Gold Rush” and “The Great Dictator.”
After the English-born actor and director left the country in 1952, it was used for television production, according to the Times.
In 1966, the studios were purchased by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, who converted old soundstages to recording studios. It served as the headquarters of A&M Records.
The studio lot was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1969.
The Henson family bought the property in 1999 for an undisclosed price. At the entrance, it erected a statue of Kermit the Frog dressed as Chaplin’s famous character the Tramp.
This year, the family announced it would sell the property, with plans to put the Jim Henson Company, which makes children’s television programs, and Burbank-based Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, under one roof. Its new location was not disclosed.
— Dana Bartholomew
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