Netflix is headed to a foreclosure auction on November 24 in Pomona, California. The property: Radford Studio Center in Studio City, the 55-acre former CBS lot the company has been trying to acquire for months through a private deal that never closed.
Lenders led by Goldman Sachs are seeking approximately $1.3 billion — roughly the debt tied to the property, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Netflix had been negotiating to buy the lot privately for up to $400 million, but that deal missed its expected closing deadline earlier this year. A Netflix spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter the deal is progressing "on the agreed upon timetable and with the agreed upon sets of milestone dates."
Hackman Capital Partners purchased the former CBS Studio Center from ViacomCBS for $1.85 billion in 2021, with plans to invest another $1 billion in renovations. Those plans unraveled: lenders repossessed the property roughly nine months ago following a reported default on a $1.1 billion mortgage.
A rival bidder could still emerge at auction, though the pool of potential buyers is believed to be limited given low production activity in Los Angeles. Hudson Pacific CEO Victor Coleman, whose company leases Netflix over 700,000 square feet of production and office space in Hollywood, said on a November 5 earnings call that he hoped for "some resolution" by year end.
If Netflix wins the lot, it gains a 55-acre campus where Seinfeld and Gilligan's Island were once filmed — and finally stops renting space from others.