Kilroy Realty Corp. acquired the historic Hollywood site for $65 million. CBS Columbia Square, located on Sunset Boulevard, was the home of CBS’s Los Angeles radio and television operations from 1938 until 2007. The original Columbia Square was the first movie studio in Hollywood where legendary performers Orson Welles, Gene Autry and Lucille Ball broadcast. The building housed the CBS Radio Network’s West Coast facilities, as well as CBS’s original Los Angeles radio stations, KNX and KCBS-FM. KNXT-TV, Channel 2 (now KCBS-TV) moved into the complex in 1960, and the CBS Television Network’s West Coast operations were based there until it moved to the larger CBS Television City in November 1952, says Wikipedia. After its purchase by CBS in 2002, KCAL-TV moved to the Square from studios adjacent to CBS’s then-corporate sibling Paramount Pictures. Between 2004 and 2007 all of these operations moved to other facilities in the LA area.
In early 2009, CBS Columbia Square Studios were designated as a historic-cultural monument by Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission and the City Council.
On April 21, 2007, KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV left the building and moved their operations to the CBS Studio Center in Studio City, thus ending Columbia Square’s status as a broadcast facility, one of a very few remaining in Hollywood.
The Square fell into disrepair during the years in which Laurence Tisch was at the helm of CBS. Columbia Square was acquired for $15 million by Sungow Corp in 2003. In August 2006, the property was acquired by Las Vegas-based developer Molasky Pacific LLC, for $66 million. Kilroy Realty acquired the project in 2012.
Now, the groundbreaking for Columbia Square, a $380 Million, 680,000-square-foot mixed-use creative office development on the site of the historic facility has been set Monday, February 10, 2014, 10:00 am, at 6121 Sunset Boulevard at Columbia Square. The redevelopment project will include the renovation and preservation of three existing historic buildings designed by famed architect William Lescaze. In addition, the 4.7 acre development will feature 200 luxury apartments, 350,000 square feet of new creative office space and 20,000 square feet of retail space fronting Sunset Boulevard.
Check out this great video of the future site by clicking here
Some pix, sent to us by Kilroy Realty:
Attending will be Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell; Kilroy Realty Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer John Kilroy, Jr.; Approximately 200 local business and civic leaders Hollywood Historical Society, Hollywood Heritage, Hollywood Historic Resources Group, and Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
