ViacomCBS’s $1.85 billion sale of its CBS Studio Center lot — known in the industry as CBS Radford — represents the end of an era for the company, and a further shift away from physical properties by legacy entertainment companies as their streaming counterparts bulk up.
ViacomCBS announced a deal to sell L.A.’s CBS Studio Center to two investment firms for $1.85 billion, the latest in a series of real-estate divestitures for the company. The media conglomerate had confirmed this summer that it was looking to sell CBS Studio Center, which sits on a 55-acre site in Studio City.
A venture of two real-estate firms has agreed to pay more than $1.8 billion for the historic CBS Studio Center in Los Angeles, say people familiar with the matter, the latest deal in the red-hot studio sector. Hackman Capital Partners and Square Mile Capital Management had the winning bid, beating out about a dozen or so other parties, these people said. The price tag was also about $500 million more than what the studio was projected to fetch three months ago when it was put up for sale, according to these people. The two sides are expected to sign a contract soon, these people said, and the deal isn’t yet final.
ViacomCBS’s sell-off of its iconic real estate properties may next include the CBS Studio Center, popularly known as the “CBS Radford lot,” in Studio City, Calif. In a memo to staffers, CBS CEO George Cheeks confirmed that it had hired commercial real estate firm JLL to explore a potential sale of the Radford campus.
