John Mayer and movie director McG have agreed to buy the Jim Henson Company Lot, a legendary studio in Hollywood founded by Charlie Chaplin.
Singer-songwriter Mayer occupies an office on the lot and has been working for months to buy it from the family of the famed Muppets creator, according to a real estate industry source with knowledge of the deal who is not authorized to speak about it publicly. Mayer and McG recently agreed to pay more than $40 million for the property, the source said.
The pending sale was confirmed by Mayer’s representative Larry Solters, who said in an email: “John Mayer and McG are under contract to purchase Henson Studios.”
McG is the professional name of Joseph McGinty Nichol, a former record producer who is now a movie producer and director known for “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle,” “Terminator Salvation” and “Uglies.”
It’s unclear when the sale will close and Solters did not elaborate on what the buyers’ plans are for the property at 1416 N. La Brea Ave., which has a history as a movie and television studio but now functions primarily as a music recording studio.
Comic and actor Chaplin, who was born in London, chose the Tudor Revival style to create an ersatz English village at Sunset and La Brea when he built his own movie studio complex starting in 1917. The property was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1969.
Some of Chaplin’s best-known films were shot there, including “The Kid,” “The Gold Rush” and “The Great Dictator.” After Chaplin left the country in 1952, the studio was used for television production. Its later owners included comedian Red Skelton and CBS, which shot the “Perry Mason” television series there in the 1960s.
The property was purchased in 1966 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, who converted old soundstages to luxurious recording studios and made it the headquarters of A&M Records. The Henson family purchased it in 1999 and erected a statue of Kermit the Frog dressed as Chaplin’s famous character the Tramp at the entrance.
This year the family announced its intention to sell the property as part of a plan to have Jim Henson Co., which makes several children’s television programs, and Burbank-based Jim Henson’s Creature Shop under one roof. A representative for Jim Henson Co. did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the sale.
