All The World's A Soundstage: Netflix Global Ambition Eats More London Floorspace
Netflix has taken another step closer to becoming the world’s first global TV producer — and one of the UK’s largest industrial tenants — by signing for another 230K SF London studio complex.
SEGRO has signed a deal with Netflix to take 230K SF of speculative floorspace at SEGRO Park Enfield.
The streaming entertainment service has agreed a lease for units for film and TV production. The campus-style occupancy will include soundstages and studios, as well as set production and makeup and breakout areas.
The twin pillars of Netflix growth is a policy of outspending rivals on production budgets — Netflix have committed to spend over $1B on productions across the UK this year — and building a global production infrastructure.
Last month, Netflix signed a long-term lease on a 72-acre studio site to the west of London owned by pension fund Aviva Investors. The deal prompted Aviva to buy back a chunk of the site for £45M that had been earmarked for homes to be built, with plans to build more studio space there.
Aviva’s Longcross Studios has played host to the James Bond franchise, films from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Star Wars series.
The deal came soon after Netflix signed for a new 90K SF London HQ after a deal in Soho and on top of two years of signings, including at 2019 agreement to take 435K SF at London’s Shepperton Studios.
Netflix also invested heavily in U.S. production facilities, most recently a 170K SF operation in Brooklyn, New York, and created production facilities in Madrid, Mexico City, Mumbai, Seoul and Toronto.
Netflix is not alone in choosing the north London borough of Enfield, which is becoming the unlikely centre of the UK film production business.
A new film and TV studio will be part of £6B plans to develop the Meridian Water site at Edmonton in the borough.
The deal with Troubadour Theatres to create three studios comes soon after Hackman Capital Partners, the owner of sites including Culver Studios in Los Angeles and Silvercup Studios in New York, said it would back plans for a £300M studio complex on an 11-acre site at Dagenham.
Nearby a 10-acre warehouse site is being converted as part of OMA Film Studios.
Location Collective are behind the 224K SF film studio that features six soundstages, each with 46-foot working height. It is Location Collective’s second facility in Enfield.
Total spend on UK film and high-end TV production has been growing steadily since the £3.62B recorded in 2019, driven by investment from major studios and content providers including Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros, Apple and NBCUniversal.
The surge in demand for film and TV production space has caught the property industry short. Lambert Smith Hampton estimated an immediate need for around 2M SF of new film production floorspace.
CBRE estimated a development pipeline of 1.5M SF as landlords appreciate that film production companies will pay rents substantially higher than traditional industrial occupiers.
