This article has been revised and corrected from the original version.
Nine community groups and local businesses in the Beverly Fairfax neighborhood have snapped back, filing appeals with the City of Los Angeles Planning Department in response to the TVC 2050 Project – a $1 billion renovation plan to modernize the 25-acre Television City studio campus. The city has approved its Vesting Tract Map and certified its Environmental Impact Report.
Since it was first proposed in 2021, the massive expansion project – led by development group and owner Hackman Capital Partners – has been met with controversy.
TVC 2050 will add 550,000 square feet of general, office space as well as an office tower that would be roughly 100 feet taller than any other structure in the surrounding community. The project is expected to be completed in 2028, in time for the Olympics.
The project has a 32-month construction timeline, with 20-ton trucks conducting more than 100,000 trips driving through and polluting the community, according to the complaint. In an already congested area of Los Angeles, those opposed fear the burden of additional and considerable traffic, air pollution, impacts to emergency response and more.
The groups follow: Beverly Wilshire Homes Association, Fix the City, Miracle Mile Residents Association, Neighbors for Responsible TVC Development, Park La Brea Impacted Residents Group, Save Beverly Fairfax, A.F. Gilmore Co., Broadcast Center Apartments and, most notably, Rick Caruso’s The Grove shopping center.
In addition to the appeals, the community group Neighbors for Responsible TVC Development recently delivered more than 2,200 signed petitions, collected by hand, to councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky from residents opposing the project. Hackman has since scaled back plans for the project.
“The community has filed nine compelling appeals about the many negative impacts the Television City project will bring to the Beverly Fairfax neighborhood,” Diana Plotkin, president of the Beverly Wilshire Homes Association, said in a statement. “It is our hope that the developer, city staff and our council member will support us in making the needed reductions to the project to make it compatible with the historic Beverly Fairfax neighborhood. If not, we will need to consider other options including litigation, action at the ballot box or even a possible referendum.”
According to Hackman, the renovation plan will modernize the studio’s facilities, create thousands of entertainment jobs in Los Angeles and preserve the studio’s status as a premiere filming location by generating significant economic and community benefits.
Zach Sokoloff, senior vice president at Television City, chimed in.
“The opposition’s latest press release reveals an effort organized by wealthy businessowners using their deep pockets and political muscle to fund a campaign that puts private gain over the needs of the city, the studio jobs the project would create and the people in the entertainment industry who are the heartbeat of Los Angeles,” he said. “This latest batch of coordinated appeals does not raise new substantive issues and mostly regurgitates comments that have already been fully addressed by the city.”
Formerly owned by the CBS Corp., Television City is a cultural landmark and one of the industry’s most iconic television studios, according to Hackman.
Since 1952, the lot has hosted dozens of CBS programs including “The Carol Burnett Show,” “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “Wheel of Fortune,” “Family Feud,” “Good Times,” “All in the Family,” “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” “The Price Is Right,” “The Young and The Restless” and “The Bold And The Beautiful.”
