The sale of Raleigh
Manhattan Beach Studios -- a six-year-old major production house
that is home to several TV hits such as "CSI: Miami" and
"The O.C." -- could bring the city added property tax
revenue, a city official predicted Tuesday.
"We are certainly
looking forward to it in terms of the additional revenue that will
come with the reassessment of the property," said Bruce Moe,
Manhattan Beach's finance director.
Other than
added tax revenues, it's unclear how the change in ownership
will affect the studio's tenants, Manhattan Beach or the South
Bay.
On Friday, Shamrock Holdings of
California Inc., the Burbank private investment vehicle for
the Roy E. Disney family, sold the 22-acre studio complex to
Oak Tree Capital Management Co., a private investment management
firm based in Los Angeles.
Details of the deal
were not disclosed. A real estate source familiar with the transaction
put the sale price at about $100 million, about $10 million less
than what Shamrock Holdings had sought.
Oak Tree declined to comment
on its purchase. Moe said he hasn't yet spoken with Oak Tree officials.
"We haven't met anyone
from their company yet, but look forward to doing so," Moe said.
"We enjoyed working with Shamrock. We thought that they were
great to have in town, and look forward to establishing just as beneficial
of a relationship with Oak Tree."
Santa Monica-based Raleigh
Enterprises will continue to manage the facility under the new owner,
said Bruce Stein, vice president and director of real estate at Shamrock
Holdings.
Raleigh Manhattan Beach opened in 1998, giving
the South Bay its first major movie production facility. With 14
sound stages, the studio was able to attract David E. Kelley Productions,
which made "The Practice" and "Ally McBeal"
there.
In addition to "CSI: Miami" and "The
OC," the studio houses work on numerous other TV shows, movies,
commercials and music videos.
Twentieth Century Fox, Warner
Bros., Paramount, Sony, DreamWorks, Touchstone Pictures, Columbia
Pictures and Miramax have used the studio's stages to shoot major
films including "Pirates of the Caribbean," "Daredevil,"
"Almost Famous," "Charlie's Angels II" and "Panic
Room."
The studio complex is also home to such production
companies as 3 Ball Productions
From the beginning, Shamrock Holdings saw the
studio complex as an investment it would develop and then sell for
a profit.
"We're a four-, five- year holder of properties,"
Stein said. "It was our strategy to sell, and we did."
