News Analysis

Opinions Differ Radically on Impacts of Dreamworks’ Abrupt Exit from Playa Vista

Carolanne Sudderth
Mirror Staff Writer

When DreamWorks, SKG, announced it was abandoning its plans to build Hollywood’s first new studio complex in half a century in Playa Vista, everyone had an opinion on both the bases for its sudden departure and the impacts of its departure from the hotly contested mega-development in the Ballona Wetlands that span Lincoln Boulevard south of Marina del Rey.
   And the opinions varied radically.
   The new studio was to be the anchor industry for the Playa Vista project, a residential and commercial development that, for the 25 years since its inception, has been vehemently opposed by many environmentalists and triggered a series of lawsuits. 
   Project opponents want the wetlands to remain in the pristine state they were in when Howard Hughes bought them as a buffer for his aircraft factory. The 1,087-acre Ballona parcel is not only the last scrap of an eco-system that once dominated the Los Angeles basin, it is home to several endangered species. In addition, they speculate that Lincoln Boulevard would be overwhelmed by the additional traffic that would be generated by the 57,000 jobs and 3000+ homes Playa Vista promises to bring to the area.
   It looked like all systems were go only last week, according to Playa Vista’s website. Escrow had closed on the 47-acre DreamWorks parcel three months previously and, on June 29, less than a week prior to DreamWorks’ bombshell, Superior Court Judge Haley J. Fromholz had refused to grant a consortium of environmental groups the injunction they sought against the project arguing that they had failed “to show causation between the alleged harm and the project.”
   David Herbst, a Playa Vista vice-president, said that the studio’s reasons for pulling out were due to changes in the economy and that, in the past few months, it was becoming increasingly apparent to the principals that finding financing for the project would be difficult.
   Nevertheless, Playa Vista intends to press on, apparently, unfazed. “Of course, we’re disappointed, but the good news is that we intend to build sound stages at Playa Vista...We intend to move forward on the project and give Los Angeles its first new movie studio in over a generation.”
    “DreamWorks was important, but not essential,” Herbst said.
   Real estate broker Clay W. Hammerstein sees it differently. “DreamWorks legitimized that area,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s still a very viable site for large users of space. The key is to find another big anchor that other tenants want to be around.“
   The Times goes on to suggest that “without DreamWorks, it will be harder for Playa Vista to attract the cutting edge technology, multi-media and entertainment firms that its owners have been courting for several years.“
   Herbst said that Playa Vista will have no trouble finding a new client to occupy the space. “Yesterday, today , and tomorrow, there will be films made at Playa Vista. Our phone has been ringing off the hook.” Marsha Hanscom, director of Wetlands Action Network which has actively fought to keep the wetlands as they are, said that DreamWorks wears some very big shoes, which may be difficult to fill.
   “Who in Hollywood would be stupid enough to stupid enough to follow DreamWorks? David Geffen is a very bright person, and if he couldn’t make it work, who could?”
   Hanscom sees the decision to pull out as one more salvo in a continuing battle to preserve the wetlands in their natural state.
   “We’re very pleased that DreamWorks has made a decision that’s really good for the environment. We’re hoping that the next good stewardship move would be to donate the land that they own now to the Ballona Wildlife Refuge.”
   She adds that the Judge Fromholz’s refusal to grant the injunction was not the last nail in that lawsuit. Rather, she said, they had asked for the injunction preliminary to trial. The case is pending and a date has yet to be set.
   Herbst said that land and funds involved in the DreamWorks transaction will be transferred back to their original holders.