SAG-AFTRA Buys New HQ in North Hollywood for $47 Million
SAG-AFTRA announced Tuesday that it has bought an office building in North Hollywood for $46.6 million and plans to relocate its headquarters there in the next few years.
The performers’ union has been renting its headquarters in the Museum Square building in the mid-Wilshire area. In 2015, the guild extended its lease into 2026. The guild extended the lease again in 2021 to October 2032.
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Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the union’s executive director, said in a statement that the new building will provide more space and better facilities, and that the union will save money over the long run by owning instead of renting.
The new building is at 12020 Chandler Blvd., adjacent to a stop on the Orange Line busway and a few blocks from the NoHo Arts District. The building is currently home to Pilgrim Media Group and Screen Engine/ASI.
In February, the SAG-AFTRA Foundation announced that it would develop the Meryl Streep Center for Performing Artists on the 10th floor of the Museum Square building. That facility will include recording facilities and classroom spaces.
The union said it plans to keep members up to date on design, development and occupancy milestones of the new headquarters.
“We look forward to moving into our new home in a few years and continuing to make SAG-AFTRA the best union in the world for the professionals who work in front of the camera or behind a microphone,” Crabtree-Ireland said in the statement.
Fran Drescher, the union’s president, said in the press release that she was surprised to learn that SAG-AFTRA is the only entertainment union that doesn’t own its own headquarters. She said that Joely Fischer, the national secretary-treasurer, took the lead in pursuing the investment.
“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,” Drescher said in the statement. “Many thanks to this collaborative effort for bringing our union into this new chapter of ownership.”
The Screen Actors Guild moved to the Museum Square building in 1993 after outgrowing its former headquarters, a onetime church in Hollywood. AFTRA moved into the building four years later, and the two unions merged in 2012.
This story has been updated to note that SAG-AFTRA previously extended its lease on its current headquarters to October 2032.
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