The J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot building mystery buyer is Teddy Schwarzman’s Black Bear, a person familiar told The Real Deal.
The independent studio founded and run by Schwarzman, whose father is Stephen Schwarzman, billionaire chairman and CEO of Blackstone, purchased the brick building for about $31 million, as The Real Deal previously reported.
Black Bear declined to comment, and Bad Robot did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The deal for the 25,650 square-foot property, at 1221 Olympic Boulevard in Santa Monica, comes out to roughly $1,200 per square foot. The sellers, Abrams and wife, Katie McGrath, are co-CEOs of the company, which produced Lost and Westworld.
The three-story creative office space is called the National Typewriter Company, since that’s what the esoteric sign on its exterior reads.
Not far from 1221 Olympic Boulevard is 1660 Euclid Street, which is home to another production company: Indian PaintBrush, founded by Steven Rales.
The area, near Santa Monica Pier and part of Silicon Beach, has become known for its creative offices that house entertainment and production companies.
Black Bear has another Santa Monica office at 1739 Berkley Street, less than 10 minutes away from the film and television company’s recent buy.
Los Angeles’ production world has slowed in recent years. Hollywood produced less after the pandemic and the writers and actors strikes, and studio owners such as Hudson Pacific Properties are feeling the pain.
But there could be some relief. Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed a $750 million film and television tax credit to make production in California attractive again. Today, the governor announced the selection of 17 television projects for the latest round of awards.
The office market has seen better days, too. The Santa Monica office sector has a 26 percent vacancy rate. The second-priciest investment sale in all of West Los Angeles during the third quarter was in Santa Monica, according to CBRE. It was a $40 million deal between Kilroy Realty and Washington Capital Management that came out to about $510 per square foot.
Read more
Commercial
Los Angeles
JJ Abrams sells Santa Monica production company building
Commercial
Los Angeles
Hudson Pacific posts $136M loss amid film studio pain