Three weeks remain until the new television news facility at CBS Studio Center goes on the air and already there is an anticipation of what this means for the business community of Studio City. With several hundred new employees to work out of the new building it raises the expectation that the nearby business strip along Ventura Boulevard will benefit. “Without knowing how to predict the future we hope that it is going to be the best for the community,” said business owner Rafi Kuyumjian. “We hope that both (businesses and residents) are happy with whatever this is going to bring.” When the new facility at the CBS Studio Center goes on the air April 21, KCAL-TV (Channel 9) and KCBS-TV (Channel 2) will broadcast with all digital high definition equipment from one of the most modern studios in the country. Outside the studio walls on Radford Place awaits a business community excited over potential new customers. A welcome packet from the Studio City Chamber of Commerce will include coupons and promotional materials for member businesses. The chamber even attracted some new members who joined to take part in that promotion, said Executive Director Esther Walker. Those businesses that will attract customers from the new CBS employees will be those that offer services that a person can do during their lunch break, Walker predicted. “Definitely the restaurants are going to do well,” Walker said Close by to Studio Center are chains such as the Daily Grill and Louise’s Trattoria and independent upscale restaurants like the Wine Bistro and La Loggia Ristorante. Artisan Cheese owner Melody Dosch anticipates a boost in business and said there has been talk among the businesspeople about the number of employees coming to the new studio. “I don’t think anybody is upset about what they have done,” Dosch said. The new three-story, 162,000-square foot building for CBS replaces the 1930s era Columbia Square facility at Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street for the simple reasons of space and age. It was simply not practical to fix up the Hollywood facility to meet space needs and accommodate current technology while at the same time continuing to broadcast the news shows, Studio Center President Michael Klausman said. “It was just a logistics nightmare that made it imperative to move out,” Klausman said. In total, 600 employees will work at the new facility although Klausman cautioned that since the news operation is 24 hours that number of employees will not be there all at the same time. That figure also includes employees transferring over later in the year from the Television City facility on Fairfax Avenue, the West Coast headquarters of the network that includes the entertainment division. Studio Center traces its history back to founder Mack Sennett, creator of the Keystone Cops comedies of the silent era. CBS bought the studio in the 1960s and for a period co-owned it with MTM Productions before taking full ownership again in 1992. CBS films network shows on the lot and rents out soundstage space to independent producers. The change brought by the new facility brings is that senior CBS management will for the first time be located on the studio property, said Ray Franco, president of the business improvement district along Ventura Boulevard. “That is critical to any organization the fact they are willing to be there,” Franco said. “It makes for a richer community.” Klausman and CBS worked closely with the business improvement district, chamber, Studio City Residents Association, and the local neighborhood council on the project, taking into consideration the concerns they raised. The process was one of “truly working together” so that residents and business people saw the benefits of the project, Klausman said. “We didn’t have one appeal with this process,” he added. Traffic, of course, topped the list of resident concerns, what with the studio being near Ventura and Laurel Canyon boulevards and the 101 (Ventura) Freeway. To address the extra cars coming to the area CBS paid for the re-timing of traffic signals in three intersections, Klausman said. The re-timed lights are at Colfax Avenue and Riverside Drive; Colfax and Ventura Boulevard; and Camarillo Street, Riverside and Tujunga Avenue. “What this allows for is the monitoring of the flow of traffic in and around that area so that it can squeeze out a few extra seconds for the signal depending on how the traffic is flowing,” said city Department of Transportation spokesman Bruce Gillman. “It’s a smart way to operate an intersection.” If additional problems do surface requiring more traffic flow adjustments, Klausman indicated he was willing to help, said residents association President Art Howard. “At this point we are sitting back and seeing what truly happens,” Howard said. With CBS abandoning Columbia Square, Tribune Co.-owned KTLA is the only remaining television station left in Hollywood. KNBC broadcasts from Burbank, KABC is in Glendale and Fox affiliate KTTV (Channel 11) relocated to West Los Angeles after being displaced to make way for a new high school on Sunset Boulevard. The move by CBS to Studio City represents a consolidation of news operations in the east Valley area, said Dan Blake, director of the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center. That consolidation in turn creates opportunities to the businesses supplying services needed at the studio. Those suppliers to NBC and ABC may now have CBS as a new customer, Blake said. Relocation of a supplier to the Valley wouldn’t be out of the question either. “From the simplest (vehicle) servicing to the most sophisticated electronic gear that gets maintained and inspected, this will give an impetus to move to the Valley,” Blake said.
