The Showtime television network is reworking its story at its Los Angeles headquarters, Commercial Observer has learned.
The company terminated its 10-year, 50,000-square-foot lease over three stories at The Lot at Formosa in the city of West Hollywood, sources said. The move comes as the entertainment industry intensifies efforts to consolidate and reduce both costs and its overall footprint.
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Paramount, which owns the premium network, declined to comment. Paramount is integrating Showtime with its Paramount+ streaming service. The two services merged into one platform June 27.
A representative for CIM Group, which owns the office and studio property, did not return requests for comment. Last summer, sources told CO that CIM Group was looking to unload the 540,000-square-foot Lot at Formosa, which features seven soundstages, support space, and production and post-production offices.
The Lot at Formosa spans 11 acres at 1041 North Formosa Avenue, at Santa Monica Boulevard and North Formosa Avenue. One online listing shows an asking rate at $6.25 per-square foot per month, which would put the value of a 10-year lease for 50,000 square feet at over $37 million.
Other tenants at The Lot include the Oprah Winfrey Network, Live Nation and Discovery. In 2021, HBO and HBO Max signed a long-term lease for 161,108 square feet of soundstages, support buildings and production office space.
Showtime has produced movies and television series there such as “Shameless,” “Homeland” and “Billions,” as well as boxing and comedy specials. The network’s employees moved from offices in Westwood to The Lot in 2019, according to media reports at the time. CIM Group acquired the property in 2007, and completed adaptive reuse and modernization of the campus’s existing structures by expanding the studio campus and constructing three new office buildings and a restaurant.
The property has been home to a long list of prominent Hollywood productions, from “West Side Story” to HBO’s “Euphoria” today. The site was built in 1918, was once owned by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, and Samuel Goldwyn and Howard Hughes have rented office space at the site. Frank Sinatra also recorded albums and shot films there.
Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.
