By Brannon Boswell
CoStar News
December 17, 2024 | 3:34PM
Group pitches new production facilities for Chula Vista suburb
San Diego is going after some of Hollywood's entertainment spotlight as California prepares to double its tax incentive program to lure new projects to the state.
An organization comprised of entertainment industry executives has won an initial green light for several new production and editing facilities in Chula Vista, a suburb in San Diego's South Bay.
The group, formed in May and called the Chula Vista Entertainment Complex, is made up of Emmy-winning producers, directors and content creators interested in establishing San Diego as a film and movie studio hub. It aims to bring "Hollywood-level innovation without the traffic or $23 smoothies” to the county that's located about 100 miles south of Los Angeles, said Bill Oakley, a group board member and a former showrunner of "The Simpsons," in a statement.
San Diego is among several regions looking to benefit from a planned doubling of tax incentives for film and movie productions in California. It's also one of many cities that want to attract spillover business from Hollywood after entertainment strikes and regulations hit the region hard in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other states and countries — such as Georgia, New York and Canada— have all adopted tax credit programs in recent years to lure productions away from Los Angeles. And hundreds of thousands of square feet of sound stage space is expected to come online across the globe in the next three years, according to a report from theCalifornia Film Commission.
Chula Vista Entertainment Complex has signed a letter of intent with the city council for several real estate projects to help drive business in the coastal county, including the development of film production facilities worth $47 million within the next five to eight years.
Screen time
As part of its first phase of real estate plans, Chula Vista Entertainment Complex will lease 75,000 square feet on the top floors of the 168,000-square-foot Chula Vista Millenia Library, an under- construction building at 1775 Millenia Ave. The group plans on building out the space with recording and production facilities within the site that's slated to open next year.
The building was originally planned to be part of a film studio for San Diego State University, but the deal fell through earlier this year. Instead, the university's nursing school will occupy the first floor of the building. Chula Vista wants the Millenia district to help attract more four-year universities to the city.
The second phase will see Chula Vista Entertainment Complex build an 89,600-square-foot virtual production studio campus on a 5-acre lot across the street from the library within the next two years. After that, the group is planning additional production studios, entertainment-themed commercial spaces and a hotel on the same site within eight years.
The project aims to tap the San Diego creative community, many of whom had been driving into Los Angeles to work after the only local studio, Stu Segall Productions, stopped doing television work in the 2000s, Chula Vista Entertainment Complex founder and CEO Aaron David Roberts told the city council.
The studio "will grow the local creator economy, nurture small businesses and train the next generation of hyper creatives from this incredible region,” Roberts, an independent film director who grew up on commercial sets as the child of a director, told the city council.
Spotlight on entertainment
Between 2020 and 2024, California film and television production spending shrank as increased competition in other states and countries ramped up, according to the governor's office.
Recently announced plans to expand California’s Film & Television Tax Credit Program from $350 million to $750 million annually are aimed at breathing new life into an industry that's been spiraling for years and was further weakened by last year's strikes.
While there's no guarantee the extra funds will pay off as planned, the proposal to funnel some $3.75 billion in tax credits to the film and television industry over five years represents the most subsidies to be offered by almost every state, except Georgia, and could lure some of that lost production back to the city and help drive new construction and deals, experts say.
Chula Vista officials say the project will generate $545 million in economic activity over the next decade, with 36,000 working days for casts and crews annually.
The group is already working on lining up shoots for the planned facilities. It has signed on production firm Buffalo 8 — based in Santa Monica — to kick off film production at the space within the Chula Vista Millenia Library next year.
The Chula Vista Entertainment Complex is over two floors at the planned Millenia Library. It's the first phase of a plan to develop new film and studio space in San Diego. (CoStar)
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