Depending on who you ask, the $1 billion expansion of the historic 25-acre site known as Television City is a welcome addition to the Los Angeles Fairfax Avenue corridor and the larger Hollywood community, or it’s a blight on the neighborhood.
Entertainment Union Coalition, which represents 160,000 workers across the industry, has supported the renovation, warning of a sharp downturn in production that’s forced some of its members to consider moving out of L.A. By its thinking, another production campus in the heart of the city will drive more filming in the region.
But some businesses that border the site, as well as neighborhood groups, have opposed the project on grounds that it’s too big, will worsen traffic in the area and that it isn’t actually targeted at building more production space. Those opponents include The Grove, the neighboring shopping mall owned by Rick Caruso which is suing to overturn the city’s approval of the makeover for allegedly violating a state environmental law regulating land use.
“The Developer and the City have advanced a project that has been and remains frustratingly undefined, leaving the public without a clear understanding of its true scope and potential impacts,” states the complaint, filed on Feb. 7 in Los Angeles Superior Court. “This lack of clarity is particularly concerning for a development project that imposes huge impacts on the community and environment.”
The Grove alleges a violation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which demands rigorous impact reviews for public projects and has become a weapon to stymie building efforts that require city approval. The lawsuit is one of several filed in recent weeks seeking a court order to block Hackman Capital Partners, which is developing the site, from proceeding with the expansion.
In a statement, Hackman senior vice president Zach Sokoloff called the lawsuit an “unfortunate but predictable abuse of CEQA to stop the Television City studio plan.” He added, “At every step of the City process, the TVC Project was unanimously approved. Despite these continued efforts to block this investment into the entertainment industry, we remain steadfast in our commitment to keeping Hollywood in Hollywood. A modernized Television City will help make that possible.”
The expansion has been in the works for years. CBS reached a $750 million deal with Hackman in 2018 to sell the site and its soundstage operation. The developer, now one of the largest operators of production space, acquired the rights to use the Television City trademark in an agreement that signaled its intent to grow its portfolio of landmark studio lots, which include Culver Studios, Kaufman Astoria Studios and Raleigh Studios. Three years later when soundstages were fully booked amid a surge in production, it started the process to renovate the property.
Plans for the site, intended to serve as a one-stop production shop, include adding 980,000 square feet of offices, production facilities and retail space, with the number of soundstages increasing from eight to 15.
Hackman has said that the project will stem the tide of productions increasingly relocating to other states. It has stressed that L.A. must make its own investments to retain its share of the entertainment industry, and on Jan. 7, the city council approved it.
But by Caruso’s thinking, the expansion is a “speculative real estate venture” rather than an effort to address a shortage of soundstages since additional production space isn’t guaranteed to be built, the lawsuit says. He points to Hackman’s plans not requiring an studio to be built or maintained on the property and allowing for a wide range of development that that it neglected to describe, which could open the door for the developer to build more office space instead of soundstages.
Save Beverly Fairfax, a coalition of homeowners that’s opposed the project, has also argued that Hackman isn’t interested in constructing more production space.
“While masquerading as development aimed at expanding and modernizing television production in Los Angeles, the Project fails to address the real issues plaguing Los Angeles production,” the group states in its complaint, filed the same day the Grove sued. “Moreover, nothing in the Project requires more than nominal television studio and production space be constructed.”
After complaints were raised, the city council modified the plan to require that a “minimum of 150,000 square feet of combined Sound Stage, Production Support, and Production Office uses” be maintained on the property. This was preceded by Hackman lowering building heights and eliminating a proposed 15-story tower while committing to a program to reduce traffic in the area.
Alleged CEQA violations revolve around claims that the project’s environmental impact review misled the public. “The Project has changed many times in scope and uses in a way that is impossible for the public to follow and renders the project description unstable,” writes Benjamin J. Hanelin, a lawyer for the Grove, in the lawsuit, which also claims violations of housing and zoning laws.
Over the years, Caruso has been a vocal of the weaponization of CEQA to block development projects. When running for mayor in 2022, he said he’d mandate the disclosure of payments made by labor unions and environmental groups that regularly claim a violation of the law to “unfairly and disingenuously leverage development projects.”
And if he launches another mayoral campaign, he’ll have to address concerns from industry folk who could believe that he’s stymieing efforts to boost production in the region with his lawsuit against the city.