LA North Studios to Add Soundstages at The Center for Needham Ranch

LA North Studios to Add Soundstages at The Center at Needham Ranch

Trammell Crow Company (TCC) and Clarion Partners, LLC announced Wednesday that LA North Studios, one of Santa Clarita’s newest and largest soundstage facility and studio operators, has signed a five-year lease to take over 113,640 square feet at Building 5 at The Center at Needham Ranch. LA North plans to convert the space into a fully functioning satellite soundstage hub when it opens in early 2021.

LA North Studios provides soundstages, studios and other production services to major film studios. Some notable clients include Warner Bros., Amazon Studios, Showtime, Netflix, Disney, and Universal. Building 5 at the Center at Needham Ranch is LA North Studios’ third production facility in Santa Clarita. LA North Studios footprint in the Santa Clarita Valley now includes more than 277,000 square feet of production space catering to small and large film, television and digital productions. Their main campus in Santa Clarita features five sound stages, a fully operational on-site construction mill and production space totaling 143,000 square feet.

“As we have grown and scaled our business, LA North Studios has quickly become a preferred production facility in the region. All of our sound stages are fully committed, and this expansion allows us to meet our clients’ needs today and into the future,” said LA North Co-Founders Anthony Syracuse and John Prabhu.

Building 5 at The Center at Needham Ranch is comprised of 113,640 square feet of Class A industrial space. It features 36’ clear height, ESFR sprinklers, 14 dock positions and 204 car parking spaces. LA North Studio plans to convert the building into F-1-certified sound stages, as a companion to their other F-1 certified facilities in the Santa Clarita Valley.

"The Santa Clarita Valley is located in the "Thirty Mile Zone" and has a rich history in film and entertainment industry. Demand for sound stages is at an all time high as the industry rebounds after the COVID-19 shutdown, and the state-of-the-art industrial developments in the SCV are a natural fit. We are delighted with the continued success and rapid growth of LA North Studios," said Holly Schroeder, President & CEO of the Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development  Corporation.

“For entertainment uses, the Santa Clarita Valley continues to experience significant growth in the amount of local production facilities that operate here. This area is a competitive, and often more attractive, alternative to Los Angeles,” said John Balestra, Principal with TCC’s SoCal – Los Angeles Business Unit. “While this is an industrial park and we welcome traditional industrial uses like warehousing, last-mile distribution and manufacturing, you cannot deny the long-term viability of industries like media and entertainment. Today, streaming and content creation is more important than ever, and we are pleased to have LA North Studios at The Center at Needham Ranch.”

CBRE’s Craig Peters and Doug Sonderegger represented the TCC and Clarion in the transaction.

“This lease with LA North Studios further validates that The Center at Needham Ranch is the perfect location for entertainment-related companies. LA North Studios is exactly the type of company we were hoping to find for The Center and is an ideal fit for the project. Their new stages will be able to accommodate the growing demand from content creators to find space within the studio zone,” commented Peters. “The Center at Needham Ranch has some of the only 36-foot clear height buildings in the market. For entertainment, studio and production uses, the higher ceilings in the space is a significant advantage. In addition to the ceilings, the park-like environment will continue to make the Center at Needham Ranch a key target for entertainment and production occupiers.”

There are only two buildings remaining available for lease in Phase 1 of the Center at Needham Ranch, which includes approximately 900,000 square feet of Class A industrial space and offers buildings ranging from approximately 67,639 square feet to 212,236 square feet on a 52-net-acre site. Phase 1 is part of a master-planned, 135-acre industrial development located immediately adjacent to the San Fernando Valley, approximately one mile north of Interstate 5 and adjacent to Highway 14, providing immediate access to the San Fernando Valley and greater Los Angeles region with more than five million people within a 30-minute commute. Sitting at the southern entrance to the city of Santa Clarita, the development is ideally situated for last-mile and regional distribution, studio and entertainment uses, manufacturing, research and development and corporate office uses. Trammell Crow Company and Clarion Partners are set to break ground on Phase 2 of The Center at Needham Ranch in Q4 of 2020.

The Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corporation (SCVEDC) is a unique private / public partnership representing the united effort of regional industry and government leaders. The SCVEDC utilizes an integrated approach to attracting, retaining and expanding a diversity of businesses in the Santa Clarita Valley, especially those in key industry clusters, by offering competitive business services and other resources.