Bardas and Bain Gain Approval for Film Studio in Hollywood

Bardas Investment Group and Bain Capital Real Estate won final approval to build a 510,300-square-foot entertainment complex in Hollywood.

The West Hollywood- and Boston-based developers got the go-ahead from the Los Angeles City Council to build Echelon Studios, a soundstage and office complex at 5601 Santa Monica Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

The 5-acre studio complex would replace a former Sears department store. When it was announced in 2021, the estimated cost was $450 million.

The six-story project would include 110,000 square feet of production studios and support facilities; 388,000 square feet of offices; 12,300 square feet of ground-floor restaurants; and an underground parking garage for 981 cars.

The production studios will include four 19,000-square-foot soundstages and one 15,000-square-foot flex stage. The offices would be built in two five-story towers joined with a bungalow village of executive and creative suites.

The 93-foot-tall project, designed by Rios of Leimert Park, includes glass offices resembling stacked clear Legos with terrace decks, according to renderings. House & Robertson, based in Culver City, share in the project design.

The L.A. City Council, in approving the project, nixed a requirement to dedicate land to widen streets that surround the project site. The requirement, made to a previous owner for a mixed-use project, was deemed obsolete.

After the developers break ground, construction of the Echelon Studios is expected to take three years. A timeline for the project was not disclosed.

Bardas and Bain Capital bought the property in early 2021 for $81.9 million.

The joint venture, formed in 2019, aims to build more than 1 million square feet of new film studios.

Projects include 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, at 6311 Romaine Street, in Hollywood. Bardas and Bain bought the 6.5-acre site in early 2022 for $135 million.

— Dana Bartholomew