A leading investment firm is acquiring a stake in Hudson Pacific Properties, which includes major film studios while WanerMedia revealed plans to sell its iconic CNN Center.
Real estate Investment firm Blackstone Group Inc. will buy a 49 percent stake in Hudson Pacific's Hollywood Media Portfolio. The portfolio includes three Hollywood studios and five Class office building, with a total of 2.2-million-square-foot and valued at $1.65 billion.
Hudson Pacific will keep a 51 percent ownership and will still be in charge of day-to-day operations, leasing, and development, the Yahoo! Finance report says.
The new venture also includes the right to build additional office and production space located at Sunset Grower and Sunset Las Palmas Studios totaling 1.1 million square feet. Hudson Pacific and Blackstone, the media statement said, will look into partnership opportunities on future studio acquisition in Los Angeles and other key markets.
The merger follows another sizable deal last year when the partnership of Hackman Capital Partners and Square Mile Capital Management acquired the MBS Group portfolio for $650 million, which included a film and TV studio situated in Manhattan Beach, along with its production services platform.
Hudson Pacific Properties' investment portfolio totals nearly 19 million square feet, which also includes land for development. Hudson Pacific's major clients include Netflix, Walt Disney, and CBS. The deal, which is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2020, is one of the most significant transactions since the pandemic began, the Commercial Observer said.
Analysts say that the deal could help Hudson better compete with other companies that also operate film studios. At the same time, Blackstone gets to acquire these prized properties at a discount as consumers shift attention to streaming services, which will be requiring more production space.
Meanwhile, WarnerMedia will be selling its CNN Center in downtown Atlanta, the New York Post reported. The move, though, does not at all mean that the network is leaving the city.
The chief financial officer at WarnerMedia, Pascal Desroches, said in a memo sent to staff that downtown Atlanta is fast becoming an entertainment destination. He adds that CNN Center, which comprises offices and retail space, will provide great value to an investor specializing in such developments.
The company said the consolidate its Atlanta workforce in the same office campus where the network was initially located. CNN employees' exit will be gradual, as it plans to lease the office for five years until it completes its move to the Techwood campus.
Putting the CNN Center on the market has been under consideration for some time now but was postponed pending its merger with AT&T. Some of the network's tv operations are produced from the new offices in the Hudson Yard development in New York, including CNN's prime-time schedule. Daytime programs and CNN's worldwide network, meanwhile, are produced out of Atlanta.
