West Hollywood-based Bardas Investment Group and Bain Capital Real Estate have announced plans for the $600 million redevelopment of the former Television Center at 6311 Romaine St. in Hollywood. The changes will transform the aging facility into a modern, 620,000-square-foot urban studio campus.
The 6.4-acre property, which was acquired in March, once served as Technicolor’s headquarters and was also the studio lot for Metro Pictures Corp. Spanning two city blocks, it is one of the largest development sites in Hollywood, and is bordered by Santa Monica Boulevard to the north, Cahuenga Boulevard to the east, Willoughby Avenue to the south and Cole Avenue to the west.
The existing facility, built between 1930 and 1966, offers approximately 183,000 square feet of creative office and studio space.
The project will see the making of a new creative office environment combined with the preservation of many of the distinctive buildings built during Technicolor’s heyday to create an intimate studio campus rebranded as Echelon Television Center, according to David Simon, Bardas’ founder and managing principal.
On the northern block, the original art-deco facade will enclose a studio lot bookended by a new mid-rise creative office building with ample private outdoor terraces framing views of the Hollywood Hills. The new construction will replace a parking lot and two dilapidated buildings on Santa Monica Boulevard. On the southern block, a vacant parking lot will become the site of four large soundstages flanking an expansive basecamp, capped by a six-story office building offering tailored creative office space, production support space, and private rooftop office bungalows and decks.
“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,” Simon said in a statement. “The old home to Technicolor and Metro Pictures represents another great opportunity to keep Hollywood in Hollywood.”
This project is the latest in a series of creative office, production and studio space being developed by the Bardas-led joint venture.
“We have strong conviction in the secular demand drivers underpinning the continued growth of the media and entertainment industry and are delighted to expand our portfolio with Bardas,” added Bain Capital Real Estate Managing Director Joe Marconi. “We are extremely excited to breathe life back into this site, honoring its past while delivering an exceptional project curated for today’s content creators in the heart of Hollywood. Similar to our Echelon Studios project, Echelon at Television Center will be another great addition to the entertainment and media landscape in Hollywood.”
The property will be managed under the joint venture’s Echelon brand, which provides an amenity core of hospitality programming and services including on-site experiences, wellness platforms, food and beverage branded operators and on-site management catering to the needs of the media and entertainment community.
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 entertainment and media industry, with a focus on the key content sub-markets 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.
