In 2014, the City of Los Angeles signed off on a proposal to redevelop a former gravel pit in the Northeast San Fernando Valley with a movie studio.  That project will finally move forward under the ownership of one of the region's biggest owners and developers of production facilities.

Last week, Hudson Pacific Properties and Blackstone announced plans for Sunset Glenoaks Studios, a project which would rise from a currently vacant 10-acre site at 11100-11220 W. Peoria Street.  The roughly $190-million project will include seven sound stages, each of which would range from 15,000 to 21,000 square feet in size and include 35- and 40-foot ceiling heights.  Plans also call for 120,000 square feet of accompanying stage support space, offices with views of the surrounding hillside, a mill, and parking for up to 450 vehicles.

 “Sunset Glenoaks is a perfect example of our long-term strategy with Blackstone to buy and transform existing facilities and to build new, state-of-the-art studios within Los Angeles and other high-priority production markets we’ve identified for expansion,” said Hudson Pacific Properties chairman Victor Coleman in a prepared statement. “We are leveraging our development and studio operations expertise to further expand Sunset Studios’ facilities here in Los Angeles, where demand from leading content creators for top-notch, fully integrated sound stages and support space continues to significantly outpace supply.”

Future location of Sunset Glenoaks StudiosGoogle Maps

Hudson Pacific, which entered into its partnership with Blackstone in 2020, owns 42 soundstages and 3.5 million square feet of existing or proposed real estate under its Sunset Studios portfolio, including the existing Sunset Bronson, Sunset Gower, and Sunset Las Palmas properties.  Tenants at the studio properties include Netflix, which leases two Hudson Pacific-owned office buildings in Hollywood.

Construction of the roughly 240,000-square-foot studio complex is expected to begin this year and wrap up by the third quarter of 2023.

While demand for studio space in Los Angeles remains high, the seven-year gap between approvals and construction may be perfect timing for the Sunset Glenoaks project.  Variety reports that the project will be among the first developments to benefit from a $150-million state tax credit intended to promote the construction of new production facilities.

Other proposed ground-up studio developments in the Los Angeles area include Echelon Studios, a $450-million project planned by Bain Capital Real Estate and BARDAS Investment Group in Hollywood, the $1.25-billion Television City 2050 plan, and a $650-million complex proposed for the L.A. Times Printing Plant site in Downtown.