A VR executive and a seasoned Olympics broadcaster today unveiled BlueStar Studios, a $180-million, 53-acre campus in Forest Park, Georgia, the latest in a stream of projects to address booming demand for production space in the state.
Studios are scarce everywhere, but Georgia’s 30% tax credits remain a huge draw and the cost of doing business is lower than NY, LA or Vancouver, which is why BlueStar founder and CEO Rich Goldberg set it there. The former executive at Jaunt and DirecTV brought on Mark Parkman, who led the International Olympic Committee’s global content strategy, including the launch of a DTC service, as well as broadcast operations for 12 Olympic Games. The Georgia native is COO.
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BlueStar will house 600,000 square feet of production and office space and 18 sound stages from 5,000 to 40,000 square feet. The historic Fort Gillem headquarters building will serve as a centerpiece of the campus, set in the Atlanta metro area 20 minutes from the airport and 10 minutes from downtown.
The plan is to open next summer with construction and development continuing in phases through 2024. Atlanta-based Gala Media Capital, a division of Peachtree Group, originated the financing for phase one construction. Offices are available for lease. Goldberg said the hope is to find a streamer or studio anchor tenant.
BlueStar has 45,000 square feet of woodworking and metalworking buildings for mill and wardrobe, a nature trail, on-site café and dog run. The campus retains much of its original 1940s era architecture.
A surge in content creation in recent years with the rise of streaming created a squeeze on available sound stages. Private equity firms, real estate developers in partnerships with executives, studios and financiers have all entered the mix. Netflix has been expanding, including a recent winning bid to build a new studio at Fort Monmouth in New Jersey. Robert Halmi’s Great Point and Lionsgate, Hackman Capital, Blackstone and Hudson Pacific, Shadowbox Studios (formerly Atlanta-based Blackhall Studios), New York’s Steiner Studios and others are building or expanding sites. Trilith, the former Pinewood Studios Atlanta, has developed a entire town around the complex.
Goldberg noted that productions will have access to two intersecting 100GB fiber lines for supporting all technical needs, including cloud services and virtual production. “What that means is in the unlikely circumstance that one went down, they’d have the second one. Engineers love the word redundancy,” he said. “So many producers are based in New York and LA, and the editing and special effects are done remotely. When you have a fiber line, you can instantaneously send it to NY or LA.”
The campus includes six historic buildings being repurposed to ensure preservation of the former Army base’s architectural legacy and contribute to the project’s sustainability under an environmental review process with the Historic Preservation Division of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. Final design elements include rehabilitated steel windows and brick walls, restored painted signage, and new windows and doors created based on archival photographs and original drawings.
“Fort Gillem has long been a significant presence in our community, so we’re thrilled to see such a transformational development through this substantial investment in a technology-forward way. BlueStar Studios preserves the charm and history of the surrounding area while also bringing new production capabilities and boosting our local economy,” said Forest Park Mayor Angelyne Butler. “We look forward to welcoming productions and their highly-skilled professionals to Forest Park.”
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