Developer invests $450 million in vertical studio complex to revive Hollywood’s classic lot model

Commercial real-estate developer David Simon, through BARDAS Investment Group, is spending $450 million to create Echelon Studios Hollywood on a former Sears location on Santa Monica Boulevard. The five-acre, 600,000-square-foot campus vertically stacks a traditional studio lot, including four 18,000-square-foot soundstages with 40-foot clear heights, a 14,000-square-foot flex stage, and 150,000 sq ft of production support, office, mill and basecamp areas.

Around 350,000 sq ft is devoted to private bungalows that ring a 25,000-square-foot landscaped courtyard offering views of the Hollywood Hills, the sign and Griffith Observatory. Soundproofing was a major engineering challenge, addressed with layers of insulation, drywall and thick concrete to dampen vibrations from about 1,000 cars parked below. Simon cites expanded state tax credits and a pending 20 percent federal filming credit as incentives bringing productions back to Hollywood, and potential tenants are already touring the site ahead of its early-next-year opening.