Netflix may have missed the Warner Bros lot earlier this year, but the streamer’s long-rumored purchase of Radford Studio Center is still coming together. A source close to the talks said the deal “is progressing on the agreed upon timetable and with the agreed upon sets of milestone dates.”
The reported price tag: more than $400 million for the 55-acre Studio City production facility.
The state of play
Hudson Pacific CEO Victor Coleman, Netflix’s current Sunset Blvd landlord, said on a November 5 earnings call that the company “had not closed the transaction,” then added it could close later in the year “or not.” No SEC or L.A. County filings have appeared yet, and an L.A. real estate insider said a signing will “all likely happen later this year.”
The caution does not mean the strategy has shifted. Netflix has been steadily converting itself from a renter into an owner, especially outside California.
- Albuquerque: 108 acres and 12 soundstages.
- Brooklyn: six soundstages.
- Fort Monmouth, NJ: nearly 300 acres under construction at over $1 billion, with 12 stages opening in staggered waves from 2027 through 2028.
- Longcross, UK: five soundstages.
- Radford (pending): 55 acres, 22 stages, 210,000 square feet of office space and 172,737 square feet of support space.
Why L.A. still matters
Radford is the missing piece: a full-service Los Angeles lot for offices and production. Netflix’s current headquarters is a rented set of Hudson Pacific buildings, with leases on ICON and other structures running to 2031. Ownership would reduce reliance on a landlord relationship and give the streamer control over a site that once housed Seinfeld, Gunsmoke and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
The backstory shows how the production real estate cycle turned. Hackman Capital Partners bought Radford for $1.85 billion in 2021, planned upgrades, and then saw demand drop around 2023. A Goldman Sachs-led group took over the 98-year-old property after Hackman defaulted on a $1.1 billion loan early this year. Soundstage space that was once scarce is now often empty.
For streamers and advertisers, owned stages are a supply-chain hedge. When production demand returns, owned capacity protects against rental price spikes and schedule conflicts. Radford would give Netflix that hedge in the largest U.S. production market.
That is why this deal is a long-term signal. Netflix is buying capacity when the market is soft, not because it needs the stages tomorrow. It still faces layoffs, a content leadership change, and a stock that dipped to $63.4, but the studio bet remains a priority. Current tenants at Radford would need lease buyouts, and renovations or new builds would follow a closing.
Source: Deadline
