Vertical construction has kicked off for the Warner Bros. Discovery lot redevelopment in Southern California, marking another step forward in the production giant's plan to occupy what's being billed as the largest soundstage development underway in the United States.

Developers Worthe Real Estate Group and Stockbridge Real Estate Funds said a 229,000-pound panel has gone up at the Ranch Lot in Burbank to commemorate the start of the project that's been in the works for several years and will ultimately span 926,000 square feet.

Warner Bros. has fully leased the planned studio at the historic media site where numerous films and TV shows have been shot over the years including "Bewitched," "Gidget," "WandaVision" and "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation."

It's the latest soundstage expansion to move ahead in the entertainment hub of Los Angeles as the industry works to recover from last year's downturn caused in part by the ongoing strikes.

Worthe, based in Santa Monica, and Stockbridge, based in San Francisco, purchased the ranch in 2023 for $175 million from Warner Bros., according to public records and prior CoStar News reporting.

"This is a big milestone for us, and we couldn’t be more excited for what this project means for the city of Burbank, our long-standing relationship with Warner Bros. and the entire business community in the greater Los Angeles area," said Jeff Worthe, president of Worthe Real Estate Group, in a statement. "This project will transform the area and usher in a new stage of growth for this vibrant community.”

Warner Bros. unveiled plans for the $500 million development in 2021 before selling the property in its 2023 sale-leaseback deal. The project will include 16 sound stages and 229,000 square feet of office once completed in late 2025.

The development is part of a larger expansion for Warner Bros as it plans to invest $1 billion to grow its presence in the Los Angeles area. As part of that 2019 announcement, Worthe and Stockbridge revealed it was developing a campus project called Second Century on Warner Bros.' main Burbank lot, a 100-acre property located about a mile south of the ranch.

Last year was a difficult one for the entertainment industry as actors and writers strikes partly caused on-location filming to fall roughly 32% in Los Angeles compared with the prior year, according to the nonprofit FilmLA.

The strikes are over; however, the industry is still recovering from the downturn of last year, with television production down 16.2% year-over-year in the first quarter, according to the nonprofit. Total production levels are down 32.8% from their five-year average.

Still, developers keep pursuing soundstage projects in Los Angeles with Warner Bros joining other entertainment studios — including CBS, NBCUniversal and Fox — looking to modernize their greater Los Angeles real estate to compete with new soundstage and entertainment-related construction sprouting up across the world. Fox this year applied for state approvals to build roughly 2 million square feet of new facilities at its longtime production home in Century City.

Greater Los Angeles has roughly 6.5 million square feet of existing soundstage inventory, the most of any U.S. city, with another 3.5 million square feet of proposed soundstage space, according to the nonprofit organization FilmLA.