(Google Maps)
Former site of Fantasy Studios at 2600 10th Street in Berkeley, as seen in March 2025. An office building that is part of the property is also visible.
BERKELEY — The former site of Fantasy Studios, a Berkeley property with ties to legends of the music and film industries, was bought by a group led by an East Bay real estate executive.
Steven R. Meckfessel, using the moniker Fantasy Studios for the transaction, paid $9.6 million for the property at 2600 10th St., documents filed on July 23 with the Alameda County Recorder’s Office show.
The affiliate linked to Meckfessel, who is based at an office in downtown Berkeley, bought the property through an all-cash deal, public documents show. Wareham Development was the seller of the complex.
The assessed valuation for the site, which spans a full city block in West Berkeley, was $27 million as of January. Assessed values are just one metric to calculate how much a property might be worth.
It wasn’t immediately known what Meckfessel’s plan for the property was.
The two-story structure that still bears the Fantasy Studios name and the attached seven-story office building total 121,200 square feet, commercial property databases show.
The success of Creedence Clearwater Revival fueled construction of the building in 1971, giving it the nickname “The House That Creedence Built.” Academy-award-winning filmmaker Saul Zaentz led the initial effort.
The studio became the base for the band and later opened to the public for the first time in 1980 after it expanded and launched commercial bookings. Besides Creedence, artists and bands such as Green Day, Journey and Santana recorded sessions at the venue.
Around 1989, the Saul Zaentz Film Center began operating in the building.
The Berkeley studio accommodated sound work on Oscar-winning films such as “Amadeus,” “Apocalypse Now” and “The English Patient.”
Fantasy Studios ceased operations in 2018. Independent filmmakers and other creative artists still use the building today.