ViacomCBS selling its CBS studio for $1.8 billion: report
A report claims that ViacomCBS has sold its CBS Studio Center Los Angeles property to two real-estate companies for $1.8billion.
Square Mile Capital Management and Hackman Capital Partnerships won, beating about 12 other bidders, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources. Expect the contract to be signed within the next few days.
The Post first reported that Hackman Capital was a leading contender to buy the historic CBS Studio Center lot — the home of popular TV shows including “Seinfeld.”
The price tag for the lot, where iconic shows like “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Gunsmoke” were shot, was roughly $500 million higher than what the it was projected to bring in three months ago when it was put up for sale, the report said.
CBS and Hackman have declined comment. Square Mile has not yet responded to our requests for comment.
The higher-than-expected sale price comes as there’s a demand for shows and movies to the point that there’s a shortage of production studio space in Los Angeles.
Hackman, a real-estate investor, is getting into the act by purchasing sound stages, offices space, and any other property that has a connection to show business.
Case in point: earlier this year, Michael Hackman’s namesake firm scooped up Sony Pictures Entertainment’s 182,000 square-foot animation campus in Culver City — home of franchises including the “The Emoji Movie” and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” for around $160 million.
Earlier this month, Hackman and Square Mile Capital acquired Kaufman Astoria Studios, the New York studio backlot and the original home of Paramount Pictures.
Hackman is one of the top investors in this space. He already has eight studio lots and home to 70 soundstages. Another 35 are in development.
CBS put its 38-acre campus — dubbed the “Radford Lot” for its location on Radford Avenue in LA’s Studio City district — on the block in late August, as the network sells off non-core assets in order to invest more heavily in creating shows and movies for burgeoning streaming platforms.
News of the sale comes shortly after ViacomCBS sold CBS’ original Midtown Manhattan corporate headquarters, known as “Black Rock,” to real estate investment firm Harbor Group International for $760 million in mid August.
