An environmental report published by the Los Angeles Department of City Planning sheds new light on Atlas Capital Group's plans to convert the Downtown printing plant of the Los Angeles Times into a soundstage and office complex.
The project, which would be named 8th and Alameda Studios for its main cross streets, calls for redeveloping the 26-acre facility into more than 830,000 square feet of sound stages, office space, and other support functions.
Aerial view of 8th & Alameda Studios looking northeastRIOS
RIOS is designing the proposed complex, which would turn the asphalt parking lot on the western side of the property into three new buildings containing six soundstages. The printing plant, currently occupied by the Times on a long-term lease, would be redeveloped into 11 additional soundstages at a later date, resulting in an eventual total of 17 across the property.
Besides soundstages, Atlas has proposed the construction of 250,000 square feet of new buildings on the campus, including 78,500 square feet of offices and 54,700 square feet of stage support space. Roughly 134,000 square feet of offices space and 253,000 square feet of support facilities are would also be built placed in existing structures. Additionally, a new nine-story, 1,522-car parking structure is slated for the northeast corner of the site.
According to the environmental report, construction of 8th and Alameda Studios is expected to occur over a 34-month period, which is estimated to begin in 2023 and conclude in 2026. At the time the $650-million project was announced in 2021, the Times reports that the newspaper's lease expires at the end of 2023, but included renewal options that could run for at least a decade.
Atlas Capital's project represents the intersection of two trends in Los Angeles real estate - the growth of the Arts District and the seemingly limitless demand for soundstages in the era of streaming services.
Entrance to 8th & Alameda StudiosRIOS
Recent years have brought a slew of similar office-soundstage hybrid campuses to Hollywood, and even neighborhoods not commonly associated with film production. Across the Los Angeles River in Boyle Heights, a cold storage facility near the Sixth Street Viaduct is also slated to be converted to soundstages.
The project sits a short walk southwest of a nascent office district centered on the intersection of 7th Street and Santa Fe Avenue, where developers Hines, Lowe, Tishman Speyer, Onni Group, and Jade Enterprises all have projects in the works. Atlas Capital Group, also owns the neighboring ROW DTLA complex at 7th and Alameda, a cavernous former industrial facility with more than 1.3 million square feet of offices.
