Lastly, some sad news. Sunset Gower Studios, one of Hollywood’s oldest-standing movie studios, has been sold to a development company that some are speculating may be interested in tearing it down and redeveloping the space as housing– a more valuable asset in L.A.’s outrageous real estate market.

Furthermore, “Last month, private equity powerhouse Carlyle Group spent $150 million to purchase Manhattan Beach Studios, and there are rumblings that Culver Studios in Culver City is on the market. Moreover, NBC Universal Inc., a unit of General Electric Co., has proposed a big expansion and large residential development for its Universal Studios backlot.”

Is this the inevitable fault of an industry that for almost a decade has been oversaturated with cheapo reality T.V. shows? Are we headed for an entertainment industry contained within the virtual, occupying no physical space? In another rapidly transforming entertainment medium, the Capitol Records Tower was sold by EMI last year, and there have been rumblings of that, too, being turned into housing.

Without the oil industry gone and the entertainment industry shrinking, is the Los Angeles of lore destined to become nothing more than a string of high-priced condos interrupted only by the occasional strip mall or Hollywood & Highland-type ’shopping experience’?

+ Sunset Gower Studios Sell for $200 Million (L.A. Business Journal)
+ Photo by Flickr user Horrid Truth