A year after opening, an Atlanta film studio is expected to double in size.
According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle, a southeast Atlanta film studio, Blackhall Studios, plans to double its square footage to an investment that could potentially reach $100 million.
Blackhall Studios opened in April 2017 and apparently needs more space to keep up with Georgia's growing film industry. Currently, the sound stage complex currently has 850,000 square feet of space, including mill space, office space and 210,000 square feet of sound stages. This includes its original 53-acre complex east of the Atlanta airport at 1415 Constitution Rd. and an adjacent 410,000-square-foot former Kroger distribution center, which it recently leased and is calling Blackhall East.
“Blackhall East is an acquisition we made to create more support space at our studio,” said Eric Hooge, head of production at Blackhall Studios. “The new place is mainly support space, because it isn't soundproofed, but lower budget movies and TV shows will shoot in those warehouses.”
Larger budget films often need 100,000 or more square feet of support space, and now they are able to rent Blackhall East as a base camp.
“Space was getting very scarce,” said Hooge. “This has really helped us out, and it also has lots of parking and a 3-acre asphalt pad for blue or green-screen and backlot work.”
Last year, the studio purchased 50 additional acres from its original nine-stage complex, where it plans to build seven to nine more stages.
“We are working on expansion plans, and hopefully we can break ground by summertime,” said Ryan Millsap, founder, CEO and executive chairman of the board at Blackhall.
“It's my hope that it will be as much Georgia money as possible,” he said. “I've got quite a bit of Georgia money in phase one, but I also have money from New York, California, and Florida.”
The expansion could be completed in phases, which will all depend on demand and investment. Once completed, Blackhall would have half a million sure feet of sound stages and occupy more than 150 acres.
“One production on our lot did a big scene there, but it's not used often,” said Hooge, who was a supervising locations manager before accepting a job at Blackhall. “We have productions that have found it useful, but it's not developed.”
Moreover, Blackhall Entertainment, the production division of Blackhall Studios, also made a movie start to finish using their own capital, which has supported Georgia's growing and local film industry.
“It's all local talent, all local filmmakers, and that's exciting,” he said. “These are highly regarded producers who were working in Los Angeles and then moved to Georgia.”
Related:
- 40 TV Shows and Movies Filming in Georgia in January
- Why the Cast of ‘Jumanji' Loved Filming in Georgia (VIDEO)
- Mark Wahlberg's New Movie ‘Instant Family' is Now Filming in Georgia
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