Culver City Takes $103M Option on Foreclosed Sony Animation Campus

Culver City’s City Council and its Public Finance Authority voted unanimously to enter a $103 million exclusive purchase option for the vacant, foreclosed former Sony Pictures Animation campus at 9050 Washington Blvd, Connect CRE reported. The vote does not commit the city to buying the 198,000 sq ft, three-building complex. It locks in a price and timeline while officials decide by February 2027 whether to buy.

Why it matters

The campus has moved from a $160 million purchase to a $71.3 million foreclosure sale to a $103 million option in under five years, a write-down-then-markup sequence that gives distressed-asset investors a live comp for how fast office basis can reset in Culver City. For a developer or broker watching the site, the next hard date is February 2027, when the Finance Authority must decide whether to proceed. Nothing about future use of the property is approved before then.

The numbers

Hackman Capital Partners, with partner Affinius Capital, bought the 198,000 sq ft campus in 2021 for $160 million. Hackman later defaulted on debt tied to the property, and Fortress Investment Group took the complex at a foreclosure auction on Aug. 24, 2026, paying $71.3 million, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal. The option, granted by CF CC Investor LLC, an entity tied to Fortress, prices the same buildings at $103 million, or roughly $520 per sq ft.

What’s next

Public parking, recreation, tourism, job creation, new revenue sources and affordable or workforce housing have all been floated as potential future uses of the site, per Connect CRE, but none is approved and no construction project exists. Sony Pictures Animation vacated the campus in 2024. Whether Culver City exercises the option, and what it would build if it does, stays undecided until the Finance Authority’s February 2027 deadline. See more Los Angeles development coverage.