Sony is set to sell Culver Studios, after all.
Eight months after pulling the annex production lot off the market for lack of a buyer, the 14-soundstage facility is in escrow as an unnamed real estate group attempts to make settlement on the property. Some final due diligence is also being buttoned up but studio officials appear confident of the deal's closing.
Depending on the season, Sony has often been the majority tenant of the Colonial-style facility, spread over 17 acres just east of the main Sony Pictures Entertainment lot in Culver City. That's expected to continue under the new owners, whose other real estate holdings include a number of entertainment properties.
Valued at $80-$90 million when Sony first started shopping Culver in March 2002, the studio conducted a mini-makeover of the facility after halting its buyer search last June.
Culver was constructed in 1919 by film pioneer Thomas Ince and later was used by moguls Cecil B. DeMille and David O. Selznick. Later tenants included Desilu Prods. and Grant Tinker's GTG.
Currently, Sony and others use the space for an array of film and TV productions. Sony produced parts of both of its "Stuart Little" movies there.
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