Disney to move out of Fox Lot in Los Angeles by end of year

Disney will not renew its lease on Fox's Pico Boulevard property in Los Angeles when the term expires in March of next year, according to the LA Times. Disney has been the largest tenant on the lot, with Fox Corp charging the company $50 million a year to lease the site. Instead of renewing the deal, Disney intends to exit by the end of the year.

"The Fox Lot is second to none in terms of location and premium production and post-production facilities available," Fox said in a statement on Tuesday. The company is now working to find new occupants.

Disney has been making preparations to relocate its teams to Burbank over the past year. The company has its own historic studio property and an adjacent complex that houses Disney Animation and ABC. Disney's objective is to establish a creative hub for its television divisions, which includes the executives who had remained on the Fox Lot, sources told the outlet.

While Fox's Building 103, located on the southeast corner of the lot, had been a Disney base for the last six years, the company's decision to forgo the lease is not all that surprising. Disney has been progressively distancing itself from Fox Corp. since the agreement was signed, ditching "Fox" branding from logos and assets in 2020.

Fox is in the midst of getting city approval for a $1.5 billion expansion of its Century City site. The project is projected to add more than 2 million square feet of building space, including multiple soundstages, postproduction facilities, and an office building facing Avenue of the Stars. As part of the reconstruction, four historic bungalows in the lot's center will be relocated to a more convenient site near Olympic Boulevard, per the paper.

An anonymous Fox executive told the Los Angeles Times that Disney's exit will have no impact on Fox's plans to expand in Century City.

Through the Fox acquisition, Disney acquired several significant franchises, including Marvel's "X-Men" and "Deadpool," as well as "Avatar," "Alien," and others. Disney also acquired the streaming service Hulu.