SAG-AFTRA will no longer be the only Hollywood union that leases building space for its headquarters, as the actors guild announced that it has closed a deal for a $46.6 million purchase of a new headquarters in North Hollywood.
“After multiple sessions with my executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and CFO Arianna Ozzanto, it was determined that SAG-AFTRA was now in a financially sound position to pursue this goal,” SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said in a statement.
“National secretary-treasurer and finance committee chair Joely Fisher next took the lead in pursuit of a worthwhile real estate investment,” Drescher continued. “She has dreamed of this day for years and showed great determination to complete the legacy that her mother, former secretary-treasurer Connie Stevens, began decades ago. Many thanks to this collaborative effort for bringing our union into this new chapter of ownership.”
SAG-AFTRA currently leases its headquarters at the historic Miracle Mile building. The Screen Actors Guild first moved into the building in 1993, with AFTRA joining following the 2012 merger of the two guilds. The building was renamed SAG-AFTRA Plaza in 2015.
Now, the union will soon move into a new space along Chandler Blvd. in the San Fernando Valley, just a four-mile drive away from the Universal and Warner Bros. studio lots. The property contains 118,000 square feet of office space and includes the building on 1.22 acres and a nearby 0.71-acre vacant lot.
A timetable on when SAG-AFTRA will move into the new headquarters was not publicly disclosed, though the guild says that its members will be “kept apprised of critical design, occupancy and development milestones as they unfold.”
