After almost 100 years of operation the Radford Studio Center is due for a facelift and on Wednesday, Mayor Karen Bass and union leaders gathered to celebrate a labor agreement for a $1 billion makeover.
The remodel will transform one of Los Angeles’ oldest studio lots — which gave Studio City its name — into a cutting edge film and TV production facility ready to meet the demands of an evolving entertainment industry. At the same time, it will help ensure that valuable industry jobs remain in L.A.
“The film industry is one of our most important economic engines in the city, and so anything that we can do to strengthen that is what we need to do to strengthen our economy,” said Mayor Karen Bass. “The Radford Studio Center is going to create jobs, which means actors and producers — but also kept carpenters, caterers, painters, florists, electricians and others who keep our industry going.”
The labor agreement was signed between the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council and Hackman Capital Partner, which owns and operates the Radford Studio Center. The center was established in 1928 and has been home to many beloved shows including “Gilligan’s Island,” “Seinfeld,” “Will & Grace,” and “That 70’s Show.”
“The project will invest a billion dollars which means millions of dollars in work for our members, and a union job in the building trades is a ticket to the middle class,” said Ernesto Medrano, executive secretary of the union. “We built the original Radford Studio Building, now we look forward to making this historic site even better.”
In 2022, Hackman Capital Partners also signed a separate agreement with the union for a renovation of Television City in the Fairfax District. Together, the modernization projects are expected to generate more than 6,000 union jobs and a combined $8 billion in economic output once complete.
They will also serve to address the dire shortage of available studio space in Los Angeles and prevent the loss of film and TV revenue to other cities.
“Since I wrote California’s first film and television production tax credit 15 years ago, I’ve been fighting to keep L.A.’s signature industry here at home where it belongs,” said Los Angeles City Council President Paul Krekorian, referring to legislation he authored in 2009 as a state Assemblymember. “A huge part of that effort is ensuring that we have sufficient capacity in world-class studio facilities, and the Radford project is a tremendous step forward.”
Between 2015 and 2020, California lost almost $8 billion in economic activity from film and TV projects that chose to shoot elsewhere, according to a report by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) for the Motion Picture Association. That translates into a loss of about 28,000 jobs and $350 million in state and local tax revenue.
Although Los Angeles has the greatest concentration of studios in the world, the studios are almost always at capacity and many have waitlists of up to five productions, a study by Deloitte found. The renovated Radford Studio Center will feature larger sound stages, more production office space and more media offices for production-related departments.
“We’re going to make sure that the industry stays right here,” said Bass.
“But we can’t do it by ourselves,” she noted. “We need our partners in the private sector to help ensure our studios remains competitive and an economic engine for Los Angeles, and we need unions to ensure this project supports Angelenos and their families.”