Developers Express Early Interest in Building Movie Studio in Santa Clarita

A “One Stop”’ review has been performed on a proposed 93-acre movie studio in Placerita Canyon, according to Santa Clarita city officials. The one-stop review, a preliminary process to submitting a project to the city’s Planning Commission, is not a project application but it does signify a serious interest in a site.“The proposal was submitted to the city approximately 10 days ago,” City of Santa Clarita Associate Planner Mike Marshall told the Business Journal Tuesday. “Therefore, we are very early in the process.”In a Santa Clarita Signal report, the One Stop applicants were identified as the Weber Group and LA Railroad 93 LLC.LA Railroad 93 LLC is the real estate investment company of Ryan Millsap, chief executive of Blackhall Studios in Atlanta. The company is one of Georgia’s largest entertainment production sites with 150 acres. The studio complex is used for productions of all types, from tentpole movies to independent films and TV series.The Santa Clarita lot, located at the northeast corner of 13th and Arch streets in Newhall, could see more than 1 million square feet of commercial space planned with soundstages covering more than 610,000 square feet and office buildings adding another 200,000 square feet and a 22,000-square-foot catering facility.The review also requests the development of a six-story parking structure with two subterranean levels totaling 1,765 vehicle spaces.No formal application has been submitted yet.“While it is unclear at this point if the applicant will be formally submitting, it is certainly their desire to ultimately do so,” Marshall said. “Typically, that decision is made after the conclusion of the One Stop process, which will be in approximately four weeks. Once the One Stop process is completed, the applicant is under no time constraint as to when they would have to formally submit.”Santa Clarita Valley has become a hotbed of movie production over the past decade. Currently, there are roughly 30 soundstages and 10 movie ranches in the market.