Paramount is looking for Nashville office space as it weighs leaving LA

Por Daniel Miller — POLITICO – TOP Stories

LOS ANGELES — Paramount Skydance is actively looking for office space in Nashville — a sign the company is seriously considering moving at least some operations from Los Angeles amid the legal fight over its purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to two people familiar with the search who were granted anonymity to discuss it.

Paramount, headquartered in Hollywood, has sought about 400,000 square feet of space in the Tennessee capital that it could move into in two to three years, according to one of the people. However, no existing building there has a vacancy that aligns with the company’s needs and timeline, the person said.

Representatives of the studio have also reached out to at least two real estate developers about constructing new offices in Nashville that the company could occupy in three years, the person said. Paramount representatives were recently shown a vacant multi-acre parcel outside of downtown Nashville where the company could build new headquarters, according to the other person with knowledge of the matter.

Paramount declined to comment.

The studio, which faces an antitrust lawsuit from 12 states including California, has said for months that it is considering leaving the state, while also acknowledging its ties to Los Angeles. Critics have cast Paramount’s possible relocation as an attempt by the company to gain leverage in settlement talks with the attorneys general.

“His intent is to be committed to California,” Paramount Chief Legal Officer Makan Delrahim said of Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison at POLITICO’s The California Agenda: Sacramento Summit in August. But, Delrahim noted, “There is a point at which you have a fiduciary duty to shareholders.”

Paramount, whose assets include a namesake streaming service and CBS, is the last major studio to maintain its headquarters in Hollywood. The departure of the company from its historic Melrose Avenue studio would be a psychic and economic blow to a region that is already grappling with the ongoing runaway production crisis. More than 42,000 film and television jobs were lost in Los Angeles County between 2022 and 2024.

Tennessee has actively courted Paramount, and other states including Georgia have been floated as possible destinations for the company. Oracle, the tech company co-founded by Larry Ellison — who is a financial backstop to his son’s Warner Bros. acquisition — announced its move to Nashville in 2024. The company has yet to open its new headquarters there.

“You have to take a look at the business environment and look to see what’s best for not only the community and the business,” Delrahim said in August. “And ultimately, you know, go to the place where you’re wanted.”

Paramount announcing a departure from California would roil the antitrust litigation, which is being led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta. He has previously called Paramount’s threat to leave the state a form of “blackmail.” The litigants are scheduled to meet next month in San Francisco for two days of court-mandated settlement talks. Voluntary discussions that had been scheduled for August were canceled by Bonta, who accused Paramount of leaking confidential details of those prospective meetings — a claim Paramount denied.

“We cannot comment on a company’s plans,” Bonta’s office said in a statement. “It’s no secret that Paramount has been making this threat, despite its alleged commitment to California and Hollywood. What Paramount decides to do is Paramount’s choice alone. We’ll continue to apply the law without fear or favor and continue to be open to coming to the table for good faith discussions.”

The lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial in March. Starting in October, Paramount will have to pay roughly $7 million for each day the $111 billion deal remains incomplete. Regulatory agencies of more than 60 countries and jurisdictions have approved the merger, and the U.S. Department of Justice approved the sale in June.

According to a 2015 master plan for a proposed redevelopment of Paramount’s property in Hollywood, the studio’s main lot and several ancillary sites contained about 546,000 square feet of office space. The lot includes 29 soundstages spread across more than 60 acres. It is best known for its oversized Bronson Gate, which was featured in “Sunset Boulevard” and has been called “Hollywood’s Arc de Triomphe.” Countless films and TV shows have been shot at the lot, among them “Rear Window” and “Cheers.”

The Ellison family is known for acquiring trophy real estate — and holding onto it for the long term. In 2012, Larry Ellison acquired the Hawaiian island of Lanai from former Dole Food Co. CEO David Murdock. Since then, Ellison has overhauled the tropical island, undertaking a $75 million renovation of Four Seasons Resort Lanai and pursuing major conservation and agricultural initiatives, among other upgrades.

Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories