Lenders move on Hackman's Television City over $357M debt
The owner of the storied Fairfax studio lot faces a forced sale as its $357M debt sours alongside other Hackman studio bets.
Lenders are moving to force a sale of Television City, the storied Los Angeles studio complex, after filing a notice of default and election to sell against owner Hackman Capital Partners over $357 million in debt.
A Deutsche Bank-led syndicate filed the notice in late June, and CBRE has been tapped to market the loan on the Fairfax-district lot at 7800 Beverly Boulevard. Hackman paid $750 million for the property in 2019.
Why it matters. The action is one of the most visible signs of distress rippling through the Los Angeles studio market, where content-production pullbacks and higher rates have collided with aggressive 2019–2021 acquisition prices. It also caps a rough stretch for a firm that assembled a marquee soundstage portfolio at the market’s peak — the kind of repricing that resets values for an entire asset class.
The numbers. Beyond Television City’s $357 million, Hackman owes $258 million on Manhattan Beach Studios — where a $240 million loan is being marketed — and defaulted on a $100 million loan tied to a former Sony campus in Culver City. The firm’s $2 billion purchase of Radford Studio Center in 2021 has also unwound, with Goldman Sachs taking control and Netflix reportedly closing in on a roughly $400 million deal.
What’s next. The loan sale puts Television City’s ownership in play and could hand control to a new lender or buyer. Hackman has been candid about the losses: “we’re going to lose a lot of money on those properties, but that happens,” Michael Hackman said at a June conference. How the distressed studio assets clear will shape pricing across LA’s production real estate.