The pandemic raised concerns about the performance and long-term survival of several types of commercial real estate assets historically considered to be core investment opportunities—office buildings, hotels, malls. But it also brought to the forefront some niche properties that have managed to outperform even while many people avoided working in an office, traveling or socializing with others. Perhaps chief among these stories of pandemic discoveries have been movie and television studios, which are being snapped off the market by such notable real estate players as the Blackstone Group. Some commercial real estate investors started snapping up production studios several years ago, even before the pandemic started, but people’s reliance on streaming entertainment as they tried to get through months of both government-imposed and self-imposed restrictions to their daily lives only intensified the trend. In the following gallery, we look at five high-profile studio purchases that took place in 2020 and 2021, in the ascending order of deal valuation.
