L.A. Soundstage Owner Cuts List Price From $45 Million to $25 Million

A year after hitting the market, a historic Hollywood soundstage complex near downtown Los Angeles has had its listing reworked and price dropped from $45 million to $25 million.

Occidental Studios, the space that houses four stages totaling 31,489-square-feet along with eight office buildings and bungalows on 2.75 acres, was previously marketed by real estate services giant CBRE along with a 4,500 square foot building off-site that was used as a mill. The new listing cuts that off-site building, a rep for the broker confirms to The Hollywood Reporter, yet it also shaves $20 million off the asking price.

While real estate values in the city are generally rising, the soundstage market appears to be in a transition moment of late due to a broader pullback in studios’ movie and TV production spending since 2023. With fewer features and episodes shooting on-location in lots in the city, stages are competing for a smaller pool of studio projects and are marketing to YouTube creators and upstart microdramas producers as a way to try and fill the gap.

California officials are hoping that cutting red tape and offering more incentives for projects to shoot on-location will curb production flight. And early film and TV spending signs this year are pointing in the right direction so far.

The owner of the now $25 million historic studio complex is holding firm Occidental Entertainment Group, led by CEO Craig Darian, a soundstage operator and producer who runs Tricor Entertainment. (The price drop at Occidental was earlier noticed by real estate site The Real Deal.)

The Los Angeles space traces its Hollywood roots back to to 1913, with icons like Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks working on projects at the Occidental location. Shows filmed on its stages include Fox’s New Girl and HBO’s Sharp Objects. In the updated listing for the main lot, Disney, Paramount, Fox, NBC, and Netflix are described as “frequent clients.”

But major soundstage owners are evaluating their footprint in L.A. as occupancy rates have fallen over the past several years due to shortened TV episode counts in orders and fewer major features filming. Hudson Pacific, the owner of the Netflix-leased Sunset Bronson Studios, is winding down multiple leases for soundstages it had for its Quixote services brand in the city.

And major sales are set to shake the landscape. Netflix is in serious talks to close a deal for the historic Radford Studio lot in Studio City, where it could choose to move more projects. Television City and Manhattan Beach Studios also may be sold in the near-future by owner Hackman Capital Partners, a major player in the soundstage space that could look to shift its footprint outside Southern California.

CBRE, which reps Occidental Studios, bills the site in a listing as an “incomparable opportunity to acquire or lease a fully operational legacy studio lot.”