HOLLYWOOD & BOSTON—A joint venture between the BARDAS Investment Group and Bain Capital Real Estate has announced plans for a $600 million redevelopment of the former Television Center at 6311 Romaine Street in the heart of Hollywood that will transform the aging facility into a modern, state-of-the art 620,000-square-foot urban studio campus.
The new facility will be rebranded as Echelon Television Center. The property was acquired by the joint venture in March 2022.
The deal comes at a time when rising production for TV and streaming outlets has fueled a hot market for studio space and new production facilities.
The 6.4-acre property, which once served as Technicolor’s headquarters as well as the studio lot for Metro Pictures Corp., is one of the largest development sites in Hollywood.
The existing facility, developed between 1930 and 1966, currently offers approximately 183,000 square feet of office and studio space.
The new master plan will reimagine many of the property’s distinctive buildings that were constructed during Technicolor’s golden age.
On the northern block of the property, the original art-deco facade will enclose an active studio lot, bookended by a new mid-rise creative office building with ample private outdoor terraces, framing views of the Hollywood Hills, the companies said.
The new construction will replace a parking lot and two dilapidated buildings on Santa Monica Boulevard.
On the southern block of the campus, a parking lot will be given new life with four large soundstages flanking an expansive basecamp, capped by a six-story office building offering tailored creative office space, production support space, as well as private rooftop office bungalows and decks on its top floor, the investors said.
“This project represents our company’s continued focus on redeveloping infill product for the entertainment and media industries in the content capital of the world,” said David Simon, founder and managing principal of BARDAS. “The old home to Technicolor and Metro Pictures represents another great opportunity to keep ‘Hollywood in Hollywood’.”
The property will be managed under the joint venture’s Echelon brand.
“We have strong conviction in the secular demand drivers underpinning the continued growth of the media and entertainment industry, and we are excited to expand our portfolio with BARDAS,” added Joe Marconi, a managing director at Bain Capital Real Estate. “We look forward to working together to reimagine the site and honor its past while at the same time delivering an unmatched curated experience that meets the evolving needs of today’s entertainment and media content creators.”
Bain Capital Real Estate and BARDAS formed a joint venture in 2019 to pursue opportunities to acquire, renovate, develop, and operate creative office and other production space targeted at users in the content and media industry, with a focus on the key content submarkets in Los Angeles. To date, the joint venture has invested in and has a pipeline of existing and new development projects encompassing more than 1.5 million square feet.
