Investor nears deal to purchase Sunset Gower Studios.

The owners of Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood are close to a deal to sell the storied facility to a group led by private equity firm Global Innovation Partners LLC for an estimated $105 million.

Sources familiar with the transaction said Global had the backing of the California Public Employees' Retirement System and CB Richard Ellis Investors.

If the deal goes through, it would mark the third time this year that an independent film production studio had changed hands.

Eric Harrison, managing director of Global Innovation Partners, would neither confirm nor deny the firm was involved in a deal to acquire the studio.

"I'm not in a position that allows me to comment either way," he said. "At this point, I can't confirm or deny anything."

The former Columbia Pictures backlot, Sunset Gower is owned and operated by the family of Saul Pick, who bought the facility from Columbia in 1976 for about $6.2 million. Pick died in May 2002 and his son Mark has been running the studio since.

The facility, the largest privately owned film and television facility in Los Angeles, has been actively marketed for sale several times over the past two years, according to real estate brokers.

Mark Pick and the studios' general manager Steve Auer didn't return calls.

The investment group apparently intends to continue running the studios according to David Beddow, chief technical officer of Movielink LLC, who acted as a consultant to Global at an earlier stage of the talks.

Beddow said that while he hadn't worked on the deal in a few months there was a chance he could be brought on to run the studios if a deal goes through. "It's a possibility," he said. "At the moment there's no specific relationship."

The 14-acre lot--bounded by Fountain Avenue, Gower Street, Sunset Boulevard and Gordon Street--contains 16 stages totaling 157,000 square feet, according to the Entertainment Industry Development Corp. With the associated office space, Sunset Gower Studios totals about 415,000-square-feet.

Movies such as Jimmy Stewart's 1934 classic "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" were partially shot on the lot. Currently, its sound stages are used by HBO's Emmy Award-winning "Six Feet Under" and a portion of its office space is taken by Donald P. Bellisario's company, Belisarius Productions Inc., producer of "JAG."

Studio sales

Until this last year, it was unusual for studios to change bands.

But Carl Muhlstein, senior director at Cushman & Wakefield Inc., said the studios are generally fully occupied, making them ripe for investors.

"All the studios in Hollywood are very active and very busy right now," he said. "At the right price point and value, they make good sense."

In February, Shamrock Holdings of California Inc. sold its 584,000-square-foot Raleigh Studios Manhattan Beach for about $120 million, or $206 a foot, to a group of investors that included Arden Realty Inc. President Victor Coleman.

Two months later, an investment group comprised of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Pacific Coast Capital Partners and Pacifica Ventures bought the 450,000-square-foot Culver City Studios from Sony Corp. for $125 million, or nearly $278 a foot.

"Determining the prices of these things can be tricky," said Muhlstein, who had the listing on the Culver City property. "They are complicated assets. They are operating companies more than they are passive real estate investments."

Columbia Square, the television and radio complex cater-corner to the Sunset Gower Studios, was also sold this year. In that deal, developer Ralph Horowitz paid an undisclosed price to Viacom Inc. for the home of its local CBS broadcasting affiliates. Horowitz plans to tear down the 66-year-old complex to make way for a new development.

Muhlstein said that studios are razed by developers building new projects when the value of the land exceeds that of the studio operation. By that yardstick, he said Sunset Gower Studios might stick around for a while.

"They are centrally located and have a pretty busy operation," he said. "I would be surprised if the land surpassed the value of the studios at Sunset Gower."