Debt on famed TV, movie studio up for grabs in Brooklyn. Who wants it?

The loan on J.C. Studios, the television and film production studios where such daytime soaps as CBS’ As the World Turns and NBC’s Another World–as well as sitcomThe Cosby Show–were taped, is up for sale, according to a source. The 100,500-square-foot property is in the Midwood section of Brooklyn.

It is made up of two separate studios at 1268 14th St. and Avenue M, where it takes up an entire city block. Each studio has its own dressing rooms, office and storage space, as well as state-of-the art audio, lighting and pre- and post-production facility areas. The original loan for the site is valued at $20 million, according to public city records. The borrower, J.C.S. Realty, defaulted on the loan issued by Wachovia Bank last year, records show. Since then, the loan has been transferred to a special servicer, which recently retained brokerage Massey Knakal Realty Services to market the note, sources said. The identity of the special servicer could not be determined immediately.

Eric Greenfield, a first vice president of sales at Massey Knakal, who is marketing the non-performing loan, declined to comment. J.C. Studios could not be immediately reached for comment.

The source said the outstanding balance on the loan is $17.3 million. There is no asking price for the note, but the deadline for bids is May 4. Four deep-discounted offers from real estate investors have been made on the note, the source said.

The purchaser of the note could either work out an arrangement with the borrower or foreclose on the property to take control of the site. The zoning allows the owner to use the site for a hotel, theaters or even a school, the source said. NBC purchased the studio in 1952 and equipped it for color television broadcasting.

Since Emmy-Award winning soap opera em>As the World Turns was cancelled in July 2010, J.C. Studio’s owner has had a hard time finding a steady stream of income to cover the cost to maintain the property, the source said. According to blogs, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, a new movie starring Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks, was recently filmed there. The movie, scheduled for release next year, is about a 9-year-old boy searching for a key that belonged to his father, who died on Sept. 11, 2001.

The studio has been in operation since 1903, when the motion picture company Vitagraph opened it. The company was sold to Warner Bros. in the 1920s.

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