New Beach Cities Media Campus coming to El Segundo

The Beach Cities Media Campus located on Rosecrans Boulevard just east of Sepulveda Boulevard at the site of a former air and gas manufacturer is still in the early design stages by Continental Development Group, which until now has created medical and commercial office space throughout the Los Angeles area.

Senior Vice President Bob Tarnosky said that while the specifics of the project have not yet been completely ironed out, he anticipated the company would have a formal proposal to put forward to the city in 60 to 90 days.

El Segundo officials in the planning department are preparing, however, for an environmental impact review later this year. The site has already been cleared of environmental remediation from the previous use, according to Gregg McClain, El Segundo Planning Manager.

“As the project gets going the applicant will be more specific,” McClain said.

Because the project lies so close to Manhattan Beach, McClain and his colleagues sought input last month from its neighbors to the south.

Preliminary outlines describe the proposed development as a 240,000 square foot five-story office building, a one story 66,000 square foot studio and production facility along with 7,000 square feet of retail uses in two, one-story structures.

The project would also include a private event plaza and private roof decks. Studio and production facilities would operate 24 hours per day, seven days per week, according to an initial project description provided by El Segundo officials.

Tarnosky said the company was adapting to the changing dynamics in the industry where even technology companies such as Facebook and Google want to create their own video content.

“Typically folks would rent studio space on an ad hoc basis, but we’ve seen more and more of the desire for large office space to have that studio component,” Tarnosky said.

As the company continues to analyze the marketplace, it will amend its proposal for the media campus accordingly, he said. The MBS Media Campus in Manhattan Beach, which is nearby, recently partnered with Intel to create studio space dedicated to the creation of a virtual reality and augmented reality content.

“It’s our sense with what we’re seeing there may be some good traction,” Tarnosky said.