A Berkeley Historic Film Building has Sold for $20,000,000

The Saul Zaentz Media center was recently sold for $20,000,000. Long known by the neighborhood as Fantasy Studios the building was sold to the San Rafael based Wareham Development Inc. This is one of the largest real estate deals to happen in the first half of this year.

The media center evolved from a record label that specialized in Jazz and blues. The label named Fantasy Records was the first record company to record Dave Brubeck, Lenny Bruce and Creedence Clearwater Revival. In September of 1967, Saul Zaentz acquired Fantasy Records and in 1971 Saul Zaentz built the Fantasy building at 10th and Parker Streets. In 1972, Saul Zaentz and his partners ventured into feature film, producing Payday and followed by One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Unbearable Lightness of Being, At Play in The Fields of the Lord, Mosquito Coast, Amadeus and The English Patient. The latest film, “Goya’s Ghosts“, starring Natalie Portman, will be released in 2006.

For the time being it seems that Wareham Development Inc. will keep the building as a media center. Chris Barlow a partner in the Wareham venture said, “You see the opportunity to create a world-class media center. We see great opportunity with the confluence of technology and a move towards digital filming.” Many of the current tenants will stay including Steven Okazaki’s Farllon Studios which is an anchor tenant. Yet, some of the smaller tenants seem dismayed by the sale.

Already Wareham Properties has created a courtyard in the middle of the building, made renovations to the lobby and upgraded to its technical amenities. Complete renovations are expected to finish in June. Vacancy in the building is hovering around 12 percent and Wareham hopes to find more filmmaking tenants by reaching out to the community Barrow stated in the Contra Costa Times, “We’re looking to reach people at the major film festivals. We’re also hoping word-of-mouth also goes out.”