The joint venture behind the Echelon-branded soundstage projects is betting that the historic labor dispute between actors, writers and Hollywood studios will eventually blow over, and the expensive streaming wars will continue to fuel demand for content creation space.
The developers, Bardas Investment Group and Bain Capital Real Estate, took a big step forward with their plan to build the 510,621-square-foot Echelon Studios project on Santa Monica Boulevard after securing the approval of the Los Angeles City Planning Commission on Thursday, Urbanize reported. That advances the project to the L.A. City Council for consideration.
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The joint venture announced the $450 million project in 2021. Architecture firm Rios describes it as a creative entertainment village that meets the demand for production facilities, inverting the typical Hollywood production lot by allowing the studios to stack vertically. Bardas expects to begin construction later this quarter, and complete the project by the second quarter of 2026.
Echelon Studios will rise on five acres at 5601 Santa Monica Boulevard, with 110,000 square feet of production studios, support space and creative office space. Specifically, the plan calls for four 19,000-square-foot soundstages and one 15,000-square-foot flex stage. The campus will feature more than 388,000 square feet of offices in two towers, joined with a bungalow village of executive and creative suites, and more than 12,300 square feet of ground-floor retail.
Property records show the developers acquired the property for $81.9 million in February 2021.
The joint venture is also working on a $600 million, 620,000-square-foot studio campus at the historic Television Center about a mile away from the project on Santa Monica Boulevard. The firms acquired the property on Romaine Street for $134.1 million in March 2022, which is more than double what the sellers paid for the property in August 2020.
Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.
